The man convicted of plotting the 1996 murder of rapper Tupac Shakur was sentenced to 40 years to life in prison. Judge Carli Kierny told the court the sentence included a mandatory 20-year sentence for profiting from the murder.
“You can’t take a man away from his family,” she told Duane “Kev D” Davis. “You can’t take his life, his whole life, and just walk away, especially when that person is Tupac Shakur.”
Davis, 63, was convicted in August of first-degree murder with a deadly weapon. Much of the two-week trial hinged on Davis’ own account of the murder in media and memoirs, which prosecutors said was precipitated by a scuffle between Davis’ nephew and Shakur on the night of his death.
“He was our parents’ promise. I believe when you take someone like that, you deserve the maximum possible sentence,” Shakur’s sister, Sekiva Shakur, said in a victim statement Tuesday.
She said her brother was “born an icon” and was raised to be a human rights activist and protector of family and friends.
“He was like a father to me,” Sekiva Shakur said. “It’s not just me, it’s everyone in our immediate family, extended family, and our entire community as we get older.”
The jury took less than three hours to convict him. Davis appeared in court Tuesday handcuffed and wearing a navy blue prison uniform. Asked if he would address the court, which includes Shakur’s family, Davis declined.
“I’m fine,” he said.
Clark County Chief Deputy Prosecutor Binu Palal pointed to five other convictions and Davis’ public bragging in asking for the maximum possible sentence.
“Whatever your decision is, ultimately in my opinion he deserves the highest possible sentence because he earned it through his actions, his behavior, who he is standing here today,” Parral told the judge. “He 100 percent deserves the highest possible sentence.”
Davis remains the only person convicted in Shakur’s murder. He was not accused of firing the fatal shot, but prosecutors argued that he provided the gun and helped plan the attack.
His role in Shakur’s assassination in Las Vegas has been at the center of a mystery that has attracted rappers, true crime experts and conspiracy theorists for nearly 30 years.
Investigators at the time pointed to rivalry between East and West Coast record labels, which they said sparked a bloody feud between Shakur’s entourage and Davis’ followers. Prosecutors said they blamed Shakur, his friends and other associates for hampering their investigation but failed to connect the dots between known gang leaders.
The case remained dormant for decades until 2019, when Davis published his memoir, “The Legend of Compton Street.” In it, Davis recounted his involvement in Shakur’s assassination and described himself as the “commander” of the Southside Crips. Their rival Mob Piru has ties to Shakur’s record label and its co-founder Marion “Suge” Knight.
At trial this summer, Parral argued that Davis “went looking for” Shakur and Knight after they were spotted beating Orlando “Baby Lane” Anderson, known as the “Prince” of Compton, Calif., for his relationship with Davis at a Las Vegas hotel.
Knight, who was in the car with Shakur, was also shot that night. He survived, but Shakur died six days later.
His death sparked a gang war hundreds of miles away in Compton, six months after the killing of New York rapper Christopher Wallace, also known as “The Notorious” or “The Big One.”
No one has been charged or convicted in Wallace’s death.