Duane “Keffe D” Davis — the only person ever charged with Tupac Shakur‘s 1996 murder — was sentenced to 40 years to life in prison Tuesday in a Las Vegas court after his conviction in August.
Members of the Shakur family gave emotional impact statements in court, articulating not only the generational loss the rap icon’s death caused but their personal, human grief. Duane “Keffe D” Davis — the only person ever charged with Tupac Shakur‘s 1996 murder — was sentenced to 40 years to life in prison Tuesday in a Las Vegas court after his conviction in August. Members of the Shakur family gave emotional impact statements in court, articulating not only the generational loss the rap icon’s death caused but their personal, human grief. Judge Carli Kierny, in sentencing Davis, said despite the decades that had elapsed since the killing, Davis would not just “walk away” from taking a man’s life. “At this time, you are going to face justice for what you did,” she said.
The sentence comes just over 30 years after Shakur’s drive-by shooting near the Las Vegas Strip on Sept. 7, 1996. Shakur succumbed to his gunshot wounds six days after being gunned down.
In the ensuing years, Davis went on to tell a remarkably consistent account of what happened that night. In multiple police interviews, on the pages of his own self-published memoir, and in multiple on-camera interviews for the world to see, Davis allegedly confessed to what prosecutors would describe as his “shot caller” role in the infamous killing.