For decades, the identity of Tupac Shakur’s killers was one of hip-hop’s burning questions. A key figure in the East Coast-West Coast rivalry of the 1990s, Mr. Shakur was a hip-hop titan capable of penning sensitive ballads about his mother and visceral odes about his rivals when he was fatally shot in 1996.
The mystery faded in recent years as Duane Keith Davis, who goes by Keffe D, repeatedly stated that he was involved in the killing and wrote about it in “Compton Street Legend,” his 2019 memoir about gang life. His comments led the authorities to reopen the case.
Mr. Davis was arrested in September 2023 and has pleaded not guilty to one count of murder with the use of a deadly weapon. He is not accused of killing Mr. Shakur, but of providing the gun that was used in the drive-by shooting.
The trial is scheduled to begin on Monday with jury selection that may take up to a week. The prosecution and the defense will then outline their arguments in opening statements.
How did Tupac die?
Shortly after leaving a Mike Tyson fight in Las Vegas, Mr. Shakur was in a black BMW driven by Suge Knight, a founder of Death Row Records. At about 11:15 p.m., Mr. Knight stopped the car for a red light at an intersection just outside the Strip.
A white Cadillac pulled up next to the BMW and someone began shooting into Mr. Shakur’s vehicle. Four bullets struck the rapper, who died in a hospital six days later. He was 25.
What led to the shooting?
Before the Tyson fight, Mr. Davis had given a football player $4,000 to buy clothes at a mall in Southern California before he headed to college, Denvonta Lee, an affiliate of the South Side Crips, told a grand jury.
The football player was accompanied by Crips-associated gang members, who encountered members of their rival gang, Mob Piru Bloods, which was affiliated with Mr. Knight. The crews fought over a Death Row chain. Witnesses said one of the participants was Orlando Anderson, a nephew of Mr. Davis’s.
Mr. Anderson and Mr. Davis later attended the brief heavyweight bout between Mr. Tyson and Bruce Seldon. Afterward, Mr. Anderson found himself alone near the elevators in the MGM hotel.
Mr. Shakur and other Bloods gang members recognized Mr. Anderson, approached and began punching and kicking him.
The Crips sought immediate revenge. Later that night, according to prosecutors, Mr. Anderson or another man, Deandrae Smith, fired the weapon and killed Mr. Shakur.
“He wasn’t coming back to Compton with nothing being done,” Mr. Lee told the grand jury.
Who is the suspect?
Mr. Davis, 63, is the only person to be charged in connection with Mr. Shakur’s killing. The Cadillac’s three other passengers — Mr. Anderson, Mr. Smith and Terrence Brown — are dead. Mr. Anderson was fatally shot at a Compton carwash in 1998.
In his memoir, Mr. Davis claims to be a descendant of Nat Turner, the enslaved preacher who led a rebellion in 1831. He grew up in Compton, joining the South Side Compton Crips and becoming a key figure among the gang’s hierarchy.
Mr. Davis said in 2014 that he was diagnosed with colon cancer, and has since said that he is in remission. The authorities arrested Mr. Davis on Sept. 29, 2023, outside a home in Henderson, Nev. He told the police that he had moved there because of his wife’s job opening grocery stores in the state.
What is the evidence?
Hotel security footage captures Mr. Shakur and others confronting Mr. Anderson, establishing a motive for Mr. Shakur’s killing. Authorities also recovered items like computers and hard drives from Davis’s home.
However, it is mostly Mr. Davis’s detailed descriptions of how he orchestrated Mr. Shakur’s murder as retaliation for the brawl that will be used as evidence.
In his book, Mr. Davis wrote that Mr. Shakur’s entourage “crossed the line” by beating up Mr. Anderson and that he acted as a “shot caller” who provided a Glock .40. Mr. Davis made similar accounts during recorded interviews with law enforcement and on appearances in documentaries and podcasts.
Judge Carli Kierny has ruled that the book and Mr. Davis’s related statements are admissible evidence. Mr. Davis has since said that he had not written or even read his memoir and that he had made the claims to gain fame and fortune.
“They can’t even place me out here,” Mr. Davis told ABC News in an interview from jail. “They don’t have no gun, no car, no Keffe D, no nothing.”
Who is on the witness list?
It is not clear who will ultimately be called to testify, but prosecutors have filed a long list of potential witnesses that includes Mr. Shakur’s relatives and several notable names.
Those include Mr. Knight, who was wounded in the shooting and is serving a 28-year sentence for a fatal hit-and-run, and Gov. Joe Lombardo of Nevada, the former sheriff of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department.
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