Three decades after the 1996 drive-by shooting of hip-hop legend Tupac Shakur in Las Vegas, a prosecutor gave an unflinching account of the long-unsolved slaying on Monday, accusing Duane “ Keffe D ” Davis of organizing the attack as “an act of revenge.”
In his opening statement on the first day of Davis’ murder trial, Clark County Chief Deputy District Attorney Binu Palal told jurors they would not have to take the state’s word for it. Davis, he claimed, had confessed his own role in a “secret 2008 interview” with authorities, later public statements, and his 2019 memoir, Compton Street Legend.
Palal played snippets of the 2008 interview as Davis, dressed in a blue suit and tie, watched a screen in the courtroom. In the recording, Davis described his vehicle making a U-turn and pulling alongside a black BMW carrying Shakur and Suge Knight near the Las Vegas Strip on Sept. 7, 1996. Speaking in a low, mumbling voice, Davis said the driver, Terrence “T-Brown” Brown, pulled up on the BMW’s passenger side, leaving Davis, who was seated in the front passenger seat, without a clear shot.
“If he would have been on my side, I would have blasted,” Davis said in the recording, according to a livestream of the trial from CourtTV . Asked about the alleged murder weapon, Davis said, “I gave it to Dre,” referring to DeAndre “Dre” Smith, who was seated in the back seat behind Brown. Palal told jurors that Smith allegedly hesitated, prompting Davis’ nephew, Orlando “Baby Lane” Anderson, to grab the gun and open fire. (Before his shooting death in Compton in 1998, Anderson denied any role in Shakur’s death.)
Palal said the motive for the shooting was Davis’ “visceral anger” over a fight between Shakur and Anderson hours earlier inside the MGM Grand after a Mike Tyson boxing match. Davis believed “ Tupac stomped Orlando,” Palal said. Jurors also watched security video of the brawl inside the MGM.
“Duane Davis did not pull the trigger. But what he did do was plan the retaliation for the beating of his nephew. You will learn that Duane Davis got the gun. You will learn that he got into a white Cadillac. You will learn when the opportunity presented itself for retribution, Duane Davis made sure that the shooters are armed and ready to execute their revenge. And remarkably, you will learn that from Duane Davis himself,” Palal said. Editor’s picks The 250 Greatest Albums of the 21st Century So Far The 100 Best TV Episodes of All Time The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time 100 Best Movies of the 21st Century
In his dueling opening statement, Davis’ defense lawyer Michael Sanft asked jurors why his client was never charged after his alleged confession to authorities in 2008. “It’s because they knew he was full of crap, otherwise they would have. Why wouldn’t they?” Sanft said.
The lawyer questioned why investigators failed to conduct follow-up interviews to try to corroborate what Davis told them. “Is it because they just didn’t care about Tupac Shakur or his life? Or is it because they looked into it and realized, we can’t verify this information, we don’t believe this is even true,” he said.
Sanft then suggested Davis wasn’t even in Vegas the night of the shooting. He said investigators never recovered any receipts, credit c…