A Las Vegas judge handed down the Keefe D sentence on Tuesday, ordering that he serve 40 years to life for the 1996 murder of Tupac Shakur.
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Tupac was 25 years old when he was shot on September 7, 1996, while riding in a car on the Las Vegas Strip. He died six days later. The case sat unsolved for decades. Davis, a former Compton gang leader, was the first person ever charged in the killing, and he is the only person convicted.Prosecutors never claimed Davis pulled the trigger. They described him as the on-the-ground commander who ordered the shooting. A Nevada grand jury indicted him, and he was arrested on September 29, 2023, outside his home in Henderson, Nevada. He was charged with murder with use of a deadly weapon with a gang enhancement, and he pleaded not guilty.
The case rested largely on Davis’s own words. He described his role in interviews with law enforcement and the media and in his 2019 memoir, “Compton Street Legend.” He said he was in the front passenger seat of the Cadillac that pulled alongside Tupac’s car, and that he passed a gun to the back seat, where the shots were fired. He named his nephew, Orlando “Baby Lane” Anderson, as the shooter. Anderson and the other two people who were allegedly in the car have died, which left Davis as the only person who could be put on trial.
The trial began in August 2026 and included nine days of testimony. The defense argued there was no physical evidence tying Davis to the crime, pointing out that the gun and the white Cadillac were never recovered. Defense attorneys portrayed him as a man who exaggerated his stories to make money. The jury was unanimous. After about three hours of deliberation on August 31, jurors found him guilty of first-degree murder with use of a deadly weapon. After the verdict, prosecutors dropped the gang enhancement, citing witness logistics.
Davis told the judge in court that he plans to appeal. Davis had earlier asked the Nevada Supreme Court to dismiss the case over an immunity claim tied to past agreements he said he made with law enforcement. Kierny had rejected that argument in the lower court.
At sentencing, Davis asked that his possessions that were removed during searches of his home, including photographs, be returned. He also reiterated that he would appeal. Sekyiwa “Set” Shakur’s, Tupac’s sister, addressed the court, stating, “My brother was born an icon.”
“He was the person that you go to for protection,” she stated, adding that he would often look out for his younger siblings. “He’s also my father figure.”
Tupac’s brother, Maurice “Mopreme” Shakur, called the impact of the rapper’s murder “devastating.”
“All Pac got was a death sentence,” he stated and urged the judge to impose “the longest possible” when speaking about the sentence.
