The night Tupac Shakur was killed returned to the spotlight in a Las Vegas courtroom on Monday as prosecutors accused former gang leader Duane “Keffe D” Davis of setting in motion the attack that ended the rapper’s life.
Davis, 63, is facing a murder charge over Shakur’s 1996 death, with prosecutors arguing that he helped organise the shooting after his nephew, Orlando Anderson, was involved in a confrontation with the rapper earlier that evening.
Although prosecutors acknowledge Davis was not the gunman, they say he played a leading role in planning the attack. Davis has pleaded not guilty and rejected the accusations.
Chief Deputy District Attorney Binu Palal told jurors that the shooting was carried out as revenge for the earlier beating of Anderson.
“Let's be clear, Duane Davis did not pull the trigger. But he did plan the shooting in retaliation of the beating of his nephew,” Palal told the jury. “Remarkably, you will learn that from Duane Davis himself.”
The prosecution has placed particular weight on statements Davis made over the years, including details contained in a 2019 memoir he co-authored.
Prosecutors say Davis’ own accounts describe his presence in the vehicle involved in the shooting and his role in providing the weapon that was later used against Shakur.
Davis has disputed the contents of the memoir, saying he did not write every part of it and that some sections were made up to increase sales.
His lawyers have also questioned why the case remained unsolved for almost three decades and attacked the quality of the investigation.
“What facts do they have after 30 years?” Davis’ attorney Michael Sanft asked jurors.
The defence described the prosecution's version of events as “fiction” and said investigators had failed to properly pursue the case when the shooting happened.
Davis’ lawyers pointed to missing police reports and disputed evidence, while accusing investigators of carrying out “biased, sloppy and incomplete” detective work.
They also argued that prosecutors were depending on “unreliable people with criminal records, financial motivations and inconsistent statements”.
According to the defence, some witnesses altered their accounts over time and may have been affected by money, publicity or information given to them by investigators.
The prosecution presented the shooting against the backdrop of the violent gang and rap rivalries that dominated parts of American hip-hop during the 1990s.
Tensions between the Bloods and Crips, alongside the highly publicised East Coast-West Coast rivalry, formed part of the environment surrounding Shakur’s death.
Prosecutors told jurors that fear of retaliation made people unwilling to speak openly about the shooting. They said that within the gang world, “silence means survival”.
Still, prosecutors argued that Davis eventually became one of the few people willing to speak about what happened, making a “number” of statements about the killing between 1998 and 2003.
The first prosecution witness was Garry Dale, a former Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department officer who was working at the time Shakur was attacked.
Dale told the court about travelling with Shakur in an ambulance following the shooting. He said the rapper declined to provide details about the attack or identify the person who had shot him.
“We'll take care of it,” Shakur told the officer, according to the testimony.
Shakur had attended a Mike Tyson boxing match before the shooting on September 7, 1996. He was 25 years old when he was attacked and died six days later.
For years, the killing remained one of the most closely watched unsolved cases involving a major music star.
The investigation received renewed attention after Davis began discussing the shooting publicly and later released his memoir in 2019.
Davis has acknowledged being a passenger in the vehicle that fired at Shakur’s car. He has also said he handed a firearm to Anderson, who prosecutors allege fired the shots.
The prosecution says Davis’ decision to speak publicly ultimately helped revive a case that had remained largely dormant.
The court previously ruled that Davis’ memoir could be presented during the trial despite arguments from his lawyers that it was fictional and should not be relied upon as evidence.
Prosecutors allege Davis obtained the firearm and arranged two vehicles before heading towards a Las Vegas club with other men.
One of the vehicles was a white Cadillac carrying Anderson and two other men, according to the prosecution.
Palal said the group initially intended to buy alcohol and return to the Las Vegas Strip to continue partying. Their plans allegedly changed after they spotted a convoy that included Shakur and Marion “Suge” Knight, the Death Row Records co-founder.
The prosecution says Davis and the other occupants of the Cadillac turned around and followed the vehicle carrying Shakur and Knight.
Davis was allegedly seated in the front passenger seat and passed the firearm to Anderson, who then opened fire on Shakur’s car.
Witness Ingrid Stokes also gave the jury an account of what she saw that night.
Stokes said she and her friends had been driving around Las Vegas when they encountered Shakur and Knight. One of her friends knew Knight, and the group was encouraged to follow the pair to a club.
The women continued driving but became concerned after another vehicle appeared to be trying to move ahead of them.
“There was a car behind us, trying to get in front of us,” Stokes told the court.
They later stopped at a traffic light and pulled over to change drivers because of their concerns about the vehicle.
Stokes said the group was still adjusting their seats and removing their seat belts when the shooting erupted.
“We were head down, taking our seat belts off, when we heard the gunshots,” Stokes testified. “All hell broke loose.”
The opening day came after a week-long jury selection process and marked the start of a trial expected to last several weeks.
Prosecutors are expected to present testimony from witnesses, investigators and experts as they seek to establish what happened before, during and after the shooting.
Some celebrity witnesses could also appear in court as the prosecution and defence present their accounts of the events surrounding Shakur’s death.
At the heart of the prosecution case is the claim that the shooting was a revenge attack following the confrontation between Anderson and Shakur earlier that day.
Prosecutors say Davis believed the assault on his nephew had to be answered and took steps to ensure Shakur was targeted.
The defence, meanwhile, is expected to focus on the passage of time, disputed accounts and what it says were failures by investigators to build a reliable case in the years immediately after the rapper was killed.