A US court has sentenced Duane “Keffe D” Davis to 40 years to life in prison for the 1996 murder of legendary rapper Tupac Shakur.
Davis was sentenced on Tuesday in Las Vegas, Nevada, after being convicted in August of first-degree murder with a deadly weapon in a case that remained unresolved for nearly three decades.
The sentence comprises 20 years to life for first-degree murder and a consecutive 20 years to life for the use of a deadly weapon.
During the sentencing, the judge stressed the consequences of taking another person’s life, saying, “You don’t get to take a man from his family. You don’t get to take his very life, his whole future from him … especially when that man is Tupac Shakur.”
Prosecutors alleged that Davis orchestrated the fatal drive-by shooting in September 1996, providing a gun to an associate and directing him to shoot at the vehicle carrying Shakur in Las Vegas. Davis was not accused of firing the shots himself.
Shakur, one of the most influential figures in hip-hop, was 25 when he was shot. He died six days later from his injuries.
Davis’s conviction followed years of public attention surrounding his accounts of the killing, including statements made in interviews and a memoir. His lawyers argued that his claims were made for entertainment, but the defence failed to prevent his conviction.
Following the verdict, Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson said prosecutors did not believe they had enough evidence to charge additional people in connection with Shakur’s death.
“At this point, we don’t believe we have sufficient evidence to charge anyone else with the death of Tupac Shakur,” Wolfson said at a press conference in September.
He added that prosecutors could reconsider if new evidence emerged.
Sean “Diddy” Combs, the founder of Bad Boy Records, has not been formally accused of a crime in connection with Shakur’s murder and has denied involvement.
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