Tupac’s murder trial has reopened one of music’s most enduring mysteries, nearly 30 years after the rapper was fatally shot in Las Vegas. Duane “Keffe D” Davis is now the first and only person charged over the 1996 killing, but testimony has also revealed a striking detail from Tupac Shakur’s final days. A retired police officer says the wounded rapper was conscious enough to answer one crucial question, yet refused to identify his attacker.
Update: Keffe D Found Guilty in Tupac’s Murder
Duane “Keffe D” Davis has been found guilty of first-degree murder in Tupac Shakur’s 1996 killing, marking the first conviction in the nearly 30-year-old case. Per TMZ, a Las Vegas jury returned the verdict Monday, Aug. 31, also convicting Davis of murder with the use of a deadly weapon with intent to promote, further or assist a criminal gang. Prosecutors argued Davis orchestrated the retaliatory shooting and supplied the murder weapon, though they never claimed he fired the fatal shots. Davis did not testify during the trial. The 63-year-old faces a possible maximum sentence of life in prison and plans to appeal.
Update: Jurors Hear Keffe D Name the Alleged Gunman in Tupac’s Killing
The trial took a major turn Thursday when jurors heard Duane “Keffe D” Davis identify his nephew, Orlando “Baby Lane” Anderson, as the person who fired the shots that killed Tupac Shakur. The revelation came from a recorded 2008 interview Davis gave Los Angeles detectives, marking the first time jurors heard him directly describe his alleged involvement to authorities.
According to the Associated Press, Davis said he was riding in the white Cadillac with Anderson and two other men when they pulled alongside the BMW carrying Tupac and Marion “Suge” Knight. Davis recalled having a gun but said the position of the vehicles prevented him from firing. “If we would have been on my side, I would have blasted,” he said. Davis claimed he passed the weapon to Deandre “Big Dre” Smith, who declined it, before Anderson took it and opened fire.
The recording could become crucial to prosecutors’ case because they contend Davis orchestrated the shooting as retaliation for an altercation involving Anderson earlier that night. However, the defense maintains Davis exaggerated or fabricated stories about his role over the years and argues investigators lack independent evidence supporting his claims. The 2008 interview was initially conducted under assurances that Davis’ statements could not be used against him. Prosecutors contend those protections were effectively lost when Davis later publicly discussed the killing in interviews and his 2019 memoir.
Day 2 Turns Emotional as Day 3 Gets Underway
On Tuesday, Aug. 18, prosecutors moved deeper into the physical evidence surrounding Tupac’s death. The Guardian reported that jurors saw surveillance footage of the MGM Grand fight, evidence involving shell casings and autopsy photographs. Some members of Tupac’s family left or looked away during the images.
News 3 reported that Tuesday’s testimony included forensic pathologist Dr. Lisa Gavin, former crime scene analyst Thomas Kern, MGM investigator Michael Ingram and former Death Row security chief Reggie Wright Jr. Jurors also finished hearing testimony from retired LAPD detective Fred Miller that had begun Monday. His cousin Zayd Akinyela described feeling “very angry, very angry, to say the least, very sad.” He explained, via The Guardian, why he remained in court: “I feel like the details, especially for people that are close to him, honestly for me helps, helps the grief process. I think we’ve been waiting 30 years to grieve properly.”
The second day also showed a problem that has followed the investigation for decades: reluctant witnesses. Former Knight associate and former Club 662 security chief James McDonald warned prosecutors, “You better treat me as a hostile witness.” “I’m aware of a lot of things, things that was going on. People ain’t talked about it in 30 years. Today ain’t one of them,” he testified. According to News 3, eight witnesses testified Tuesday. Former Maxim Hotel security guard William Heidmyer remembered hearing “Three to four, maybe even five each volley,” adding, “It was a series of pops.”
Wednesday, Aug. 19, marks Day 3 of witness testimony. News 3 reported that proceedings were scheduled to begin at 1 p.m. in Las Vegas, with prosecutors having already called more than a dozen witnesses through the first two days. As the third day gets underway, jurors are confronting evidence gathered across three decades, conflicting memories and witnesses reluctant to revisit the past, all while deciding whether prosecutors can finally prove who was legally responsible for Tupac’s killing.
Officer Recalls Tupac’s Chilling Words After the Shooting
Tupac was riding in a BMW driven by Death Row Records co-founder Marion “Suge” Knight on Sept. 7, 1996, after attending the Mike Tyson-Bruce Seldon fight. A white Cadillac reportedly pulled alongside them near the Las Vegas Strip, and gunfire erupted. Tupac was struck multiple times and died six days later, on Sept. 13. He was 25.
On Monday, Aug. 17, retired Las Vegas Metropolitan Police officer Garry Dale gave jurors a remarkable account of what happened immediately afterward. According to CNN, Dale had actually stopped Tupac and Knight roughly 10 minutes before the shooting because their BMW lacked a rear license plate. During the friendly encounter, Dale remembered noticing Tupac’s jewelry and saying, “Wow, man, that’s a huge piece of gold.” He let the pair leave with a verbal warning.
Minutes later, Dale responded to the shooting and recognized the same BMW. He accompanied Tupac to University Medical Center in an ambulance and repeatedly tried to learn who had shot him. Dale testified that Tupac responded with words to the effect of “No, we’ll take care of it” or “No, no, we’ll take care of it.” “I couldn’t get him to talk any further,” Dale told the court.
That account differs from retired Sgt. Chris Carroll’s previous recollection. Carroll has said he asked the wounded rapper who shot him at the scene and Tupac answered, “F—ck you,” before losing consciousness. The statements may have occurred at different moments, and neither identifies the gunman.
Day 1 of Tupac’s Murder Trial Reveals the State’s Case
Davis was indicted in 2023 and became the first and only person charged in connection with Tupac’s killing. CNN reported that opening statements on Aug. 17 laid out the competing versions jurors will have to weigh. Prosecutors called Tupac’s killing “an act of revenge” and contend Davis helped orchestrate the shooting after Tupac and others attacked Davis’ nephew, Orlando “Baby Lane” Anderson, inside the MGM Grand earlier that night. Prosecutors are not claiming Davis personally fired the fatal shots.
Davis, 63, has pleaded not guilty. His attorney, Michael Sanft, attacked the decades-old investigation and called one former detective’s work “biased, sloppy, and incomplete.” Sanft also questioned the reliability of statements Davis made over the years, including accounts of his involvement. After the first day, he said of his client, “He was hopeful. He’s in a good place right now. The jitters are out.”
However, the attorney acknowledged the difficulties created by the passage of time, saying, “I mean, the evidence has gone cold. It’s stale now. I wouldn’t say that there’s any real hope for that.” Tupac’s sister, Sekyiwa Shakur, attended the proceedings and summed up the emotional first day to CNN: “It was just a whole lot. A lot of information to take in.”
