The trial of a former gang leader accused of orchestrating the 1996 killing of rap star Tupac Shakur began in a Las Vegas courtroom on Monday morning.
Duane “Keffe D” Davis is on trial for murder for his alleged role in the shooting of Shakur, who died after a drive-by shooting. Prosecutors allege Davis was the “on-the-ground, on-site commander of the effort to kill Tupac”.
Davis has pleaded not guilty, though he acknowledged a role in the shooting in a 2019 memoir that authorities have said is key to the case against the 63-year-old. He is the only witness.
Last week, a jury of six men and 10 women was selected in the trial, which is expected to last about a month.
Davis entered the courtroom in a blue suit and tie and scanned the audience to see who was there before sitting next to his lawyer Michael Sanft once the jury was sworn in and seated on Monday morning.
Members of Shakur’s family, including his stepbrother Maurice “Mopreme” Shakur, sat quietly in the front row of the courtroom behind prosecutors.
Binu Palal, the chief deputy district attorney, showed jurors a picture of the Mike Tyson fight with the date “September 7, 1996” and showed video of Shakur’s entourage attacking Davis’s nephew Orlando “Baby Lane” 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 said. “Remarkably, you will learn that from Duane Davis himself.”
Defense lawyer Michael Sandt, meanwhile, said that after 30 years, investigators still have very little evidence to prove their case.
“At the end of the day you have to ask yourself, is what they are saying truth or fiction?” Sandt told the jury.
The trial is a major development in the case that for decades was unsolved.
On 7 September 1996, the rap icon was attacked just off the Las Vegas strip as he headed to an afterparty with the Death Row Records founder, Marion “Suge” Knight. While traveling in the vehicle, a Cadillac pulled up next to Shakur’s vehicle and fired eight shots. Shakur was hospitalized for his injuries and died days later.
Shakur’s killing spawned countless conspiracy theories as well as books and documentaries seeking to determine who was responsible for his death. But a fuller picture of what may have occurred that night has emerged in recent years as Davis, who was the last surviving passenger in the Cadillac, began speaking publicly.
Earlier in the evening Shakur had attended the Tyson fight at the MGM Grand Hotel and afterward was involved in a physical confrontation with Davis’s nephew and several others.
Davis sought retribution for Anderson and allegedly obtained a gun with the intent to “hunt down” Shakur and confront Knight. The incident unfolded quickly, Davis wrote.
“No words were exchanged, the time for talking had passed, the shit was on! Tupac made an erratic move and began to reach down beneath his seat. It was the first and only time in my life that I could relate to the police command to, ‘Keep your hands where I can see them.’ Instead, Pac pulled out a strap, and that’s when the fireworks started. One of my guys from the back seat grabbed the Glock and started bustin’ back,” he wrote.
Davis never identified who pulled the trigger.
Prosecutors have said that Davis’s tell-all book and public statements ultimately revived the Las Vegas investigation.
“Had he decided to never write the book, he would not, probably, have ever been prosecuted for the crime,” prosecutor Marc DiGiacomo recently said.
His attorneys sought to exclude the book from trial by arguing that he and his co-author exaggerated in an effort to “falsely place himself at the center of it all for personal gain”. A judge denied the request.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed reporting
