Duane Davis, the man convicted of orchestrating the 1996 killing of rapper Tupac Shakur, is scheduled to learn his sentence Tuesday in a Las Vegas courtroom. Family members of Shakur are expected to address the judge during the hearing, according to notices filed by prosecutors.
Shakur was shot on Sept. 7, 1996, at the intersection of Flamingo Road and Koval Lane near the Strip and died six days later at University Medical Center. The case went unsolved for decades until police arrested Davis, now 63, outside his Henderson home in 2023.
Prosecutors alleged Davis was the "shot-caller" who planned the retaliation against Shakur and Death Row Records CEO Marion "Suge" Knight after Shakur's entourage attacked Davis' nephew, Orlando Anderson, at the MGM Grand earlier that night. Knight, who was driving the BMW carrying Shakur, was grazed in the head.
At trial, Chief Deputy District Attorney Binu Palal told jurors, "Duane Davis did not pull the trigger, but what he did do is plan the retaliation for the beating of his nephew." The case relied heavily on Davis' own statements to media and law enforcement, including an admission in a memoir he later disputed writing that he supplied the gun.
Jurors found Davis guilty of first-degree murder with a deadly weapon after about three hours of deliberations. He faces a long prison sentence.
Sources: Las Vegas Review-Journal
Original reporting: Las Vegas Review-Journal →
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