Former Los Angeles gang leader Duane “Keffe D” Davis, who boasted for years about his involvement in the shooting of musician Tupac Shakur, before recanting when he was put on trial, has been sentenced to a minimum of 40 years in prison.
AFP writes that the sentence, which would almost certainly see him die in custody, came three decades after the gunning down of one of the most prominent hip hop artistes of the late 20th century, and after years of criticism over investigations that led nowhere.
Davis, 63, used to head up a chapter of the feared Crips, one of a patchwork of rival gangs that dominated portions of Los Angeles in the 1990s.
He spent years on the run from the authorities and appeared to think he was beyond it when he revealed in his memoir that he had ordered the killing of Shakur.
“I’ve heard you say some variation of the same thing to law enforcement for three years…in your book, and it’s like, ‘Yeah, I was part in this, but I’m different. I’ve moved past. I was born in Compton. “I’m a grandfather now,” Judge Carli Kierny told Davis as she handed down the sentence in a Las Vegas courtroom yesterday.
“I’m here to tell you that’s not how this shit works.”
“You don’t get to steal a man from his family. You don’t get to have his very existence, his entire future and walk away from it. Especially if that individual is Tupac Shakur,” the judge said.
Shakur was central to a hip-hop feud between the US’s East Coast and West Coast.
He was just 25 years old when shot in Las Vegas.
A trial heard how Davis ordered the killing of the hip-hop musician on September 7, 1996, after his own nephew was beaten by members of Shakur’s entourage at a Las Vegas casino.
About two hours after the casino confrontation, the “California Love” performer was shot by a gunman in a white Cadillac that drew up beside the BMW in which the rapper was riding.
Davis delivered the gun to someone in the back of the Cadillac and told that person to shoot Shakur, who died six days later.
No one has absolutely divulged the name of that person. Davis is the only person who was in the Cadillac that evening and is still alive.
The driver of the BMW, Death Row Records co-founder Marion “Suge” Knight, was shot and wounded.
Born an Icon
The killing of 2Pac, whose real name was Shakur, was one of America’s most famous cold cases and sparked unending debate among music enthusiasts over who did it and why.
Shakur, whose successes included “All Eyez on Me,” was the son of a Black Panther activist who grew up in Harlem and Baltimore but swiftly became the poster child of California hip hop when he joined with Los Angeles’ Death Row records.
His sister, Sekyiwa Shakur, delivered an impassioned tribute Tuesday, saying that he “was born an icon.”
“Consciously raised him to be a human rights activist, someone to stand up for those weaker and smaller than he was, and that’s who he was to me and all the family,” their mother added. He was the guy you went to for protection.
“He gave the labour of his entire life to advance his race. He was tender and gentle with ladies and children. He fed anyone he knew who didn’t have. He was my dazzling star, my glittering prince. He was the one God trusted to look after me.”
Before the sentence was passed Davis said nothing in mitigation, pledging simply to fight the guilty judgement. Get Legal Defence
About the Author
