{"id":47116,"date":"2026-08-15T18:29:34","date_gmt":"2026-08-15T13:29:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=47116"},"modified":"2026-08-15T18:29:34","modified_gmt":"2026-08-15T13:29:34","slug":"after-nearly-30-years-a-man-is-on-trial-in-the-fatal-shooting-of-tupac-shakur-heres-what-to-know","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=47116","title":{"rendered":"After nearly 30 years, a man is on trial in the fatal shooting of Tupac Shakur. Here\u2019s what to know"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/twt-thumbs.washtimes.com\/media\/image\/2026\/08\/15\/Tupac_Trial_2_326_s1440x1032.jpg?c239593c24baf721ce206a0f345f844eb24f818f\" \/><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>When Tupac Shakur was fatally shot at age 25 on Sept. 7, 1996, the presidential race between incumbent Bill Clinton and Bob Dole was in its stretch run. The Atlanta Olympics had just ended. The internet was in its infancy.<\/p>\n<p>In a booming music business, CDs were king, like Shakur\u2019s monumental \u201cAll Eyez on Me,\u201d which topped the Billboard album chart a few months earlier. It was the pinnacle of a brief hip-hop career whose legend would only grow in the following decades. His shooting was one of several momentous mid-1990s musical deaths, including those of Kurt Cobain and Shakur\u2019s archrival the Notorious B.I.G.<\/p>\n<p>Starting Monday in Las Vegas, that September night will come under intense scrutiny again as 63-year-old Duane \u201cKeffe D\u201d Davis is tried in his killing. It is a moment that many fans and followers of the formerly cold case thought might never come.<\/p>\n<p>Prosecutors allege Davis orchestrated Shakur\u2019s shooting. They have charged him with one count of murder with a deadly weapon with the intent to promote, further or assist a criminal gang.<\/p>\n<p>Davis has pleaded not guilty. His defense attorneys argue there is no evidence he directed the shooting and the state is relying on witnesses who weren\u2019t there.<\/p>\n<p>Here\u2019s a look at key elements of the trial that is expected to last about a month.<\/p>\n<hr\/>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/multimedia\/collection\/nearly-30-years-man-trial-fatal-2026-08\/\" target=\"_blank\">PHOTOS: After nearly 30 years, a man is on trial in the fatal shooting of Tupac Shakur. Here&#8217;s what to know<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<hr style=\"margin-bottom: 15px;\"\/>\n<h3>What happened on the night Tupac was shot<\/h3>\n<aside>\n<\/aside>\n<p>Shakur and Death Row Records co-founder Marion \u201cSuge\u201d Knight were in Las Vegas to watch Mike Tyson knock out Bruce Seldon at the MGM Grand Garden Arena. Just outside the fight, Shakur, Knight and their entourage got into a brawl with a group that included Davis\u2019 nephew, Orlando \u201cBaby Lane\u201d Anderson.<\/p>\n<p>Authorities, authors and Davis himself say the shooting was an act of retaliation. Davis\u2019 2019 memoir \u201cCompton Street Legend,\u201d said the men had \u201ccrossed the line\u201d when they beat up Anderson.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe couldn\u2019t let no record company studio gangsters do us like that,\u201d says the book, which along with Davis interviews revived the cold case and led to Davis being charged. The co-authored memoir will be essential to the trial. Davis\u2019 defense fought unsuccessfully to get it excluded.<\/p>\n<p>Later in the night, Shakur and Knight were heading to a nightclub where Shakur was scheduled to perform. At a red light near the Las Vegas Strip, a white Cadillac pulled up beside them, and gunfire erupted. Shakur was shot multiple times and died six days later. Knight survived with minor injuries.<\/p>\n<h3>Prosecutors say Davis called for shooting that was fueled by long gang feud<\/h3>\n<p>The long, lingering question of who shot Tupac may stay unanswered. But prosecutors hope to prove that Davis was the shot caller and provided the weapon.<\/p>\n<p>He was one of four men in the Cadillac, authorities said. The other three have all died in the years since. Authorities say neither the car nor the gun used in the shooting were recovered.<\/p>\n<p>Grand jury testimony portrayed the shooting as a culmination of a longstanding feud between rival record labels &#8211; Death Row Records and Bad Boy Records &#8211; and rival gang sects Mob Piru and South Side Compton Crips.<\/p>\n<h3>The key players at trial<\/h3>\n<p>The jury will consist of six men and 10 women who were seated Thursday. Four are alternates.<\/p>\n<p>Attorney Michael Sanft will lead Davis\u2019 defense. He has said he took the case on a pro-bono basis. His previous high-profile clients include Michele Fiore, a Nevada politician convicted of wire fraud but pardoned by President Donald Trump before she was sentenced, and Andrew Cote, a former Las Vegas pastor found guilty of shooting and killing his 71-year-old neighbor and her 54-year-old boyfriend.<\/p>\n<p>Chief Deputy District Attorney Marc DiGiacomo will head the prosecution. He previously faced off with Sanft as the prosecutor in the Cote case.<\/p>\n<p>Judge Carli Kierny was a public defender for 10 years in Clark County, Nevada, where she was elected as a judge in 2020. She is on the ballot again later this year.<\/p>\n<h3>Dozens of prosecution witnesses could include \u2018Suge\u2019 Knight<\/h3>\n<p>Prosecutors expect to call between 35 and 45 people to the stand. Along with police and technical witnesses, they are expected to include people who saw Shakur moments before he was shot and those who were associates of both Shakur and Davis at the time.<\/p>\n<p>Knight, the West Coast hip-hop mogul who was once one of the most important and most feared men in music, is the only surviving eyewitness other than the defendant. He is on the witness list and may be summoned. He has said he wants no part in the trial. He is serving a 28-year prison sentence in California for running over and killing a Compton businessman in 2015.<\/p>\n<p>Davis wrote in his book that moments before the shooting, he and Knight \u201clooked each other dead in the eye\u201d like \u201ctwo rams locking horns.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Sean \u201cDiddy\u201d Combs, Knight\u2019s East Coast counterpart and fierce foe, will not be testifying.<\/p>\n<p>The defense intends to call only a handful of witnesses. They have not said whether Davis will testify.<\/p>\n<h3>The three men who didn\u2019t live to take part in the trial<\/h3>\n<p>Law enforcement authorities long suspected that the gunman was Anderson, Davis\u2019 12-years-younger nephew who was 22 at the time. He was sitting in the backseat of the Cadillac, behind his uncle. Anderson, who denied involvement in Shakur\u2019s killing, died two years later in what police said was an unrelated shooting at a Compton car wash.<\/p>\n<p>Deandrae \u201cFreaky\u201d Smith was in the backseat sitting next to Anderson. Denvonta Lee, a former associate of Smith who talked to him about the shooting soon after it happened, told a grand jury it was Smith who fired the shots but let Anderson take credit for Shakur\u2019s death. Smith died in 2004 at age 30 from what authorities said were natural causes.<\/p>\n<p>                        <a name=\"pagebreak\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Terry \u201cBubble Up\u201d Brown was the driver of the Cadillac. He died in a 2015 shooting at a medical marijuana dispensary in Compton.<\/p>\n<div class=\"permission\" style=\"padding-top: 25px;\">\n<p>Copyright \u00a9 2026 The Washington Times, LLC.\n                        <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When Tupac Shakur was fatally shot at age 25 on Sept. 7, 1996, the presidential race between incumbent Bill Clinton and Bob Dole was in its stretch run. The Atlanta Olympics had just ended. The internet was in its infancy. In a booming music business, CDs were king, like Shakur\u2019s monumental \u201cAll Eyez on Me,\u201d&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":47117,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/twt-thumbs.washtimes.com\/media\/image\/2026\/08\/15\/Tupac_Trial_2_326_c0-200-3000-1950_s1200x700.jpg?7838ce2f3e0077267133ba3a93f387a662774083","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47116","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-hub"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47116","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=47116"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47116\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/47117"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=47116"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=47116"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=47116"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}