LAS VEGAS, United States -The long-awaited Tupac Shakur murder trial has begun in Las Vegas, nearly three decades after the hip-hop legend was fatally shot in a drive-by attack that became one of the music industry’s most enduring mysteries.
Opening statements in the case against Duane “Keffe D” Davis, 63, began on Monday, August 17, 2026, at Clark County District Court.
Davis is the only person ever charged in connection with Shakur’s murder. He has pleaded not guilty to one count of murder with a deadly weapon and faces the possibility of life imprisonment without parole if convicted.
The trial has brought renewed attention to the events surrounding Shakur’s death on September 13, 1996, six days after he was shot while riding in a BMW with Death Row Records co-founder Marion “Suge” Knight.
The prosecution opened its case by portraying Davis as the “on-site commander” who organised the attack as an act of revenge.
Prosecutors do not allege that Davis personally fired the shots. Instead, they argue that he helped organise the shooting, obtained the firearm and directed the operation after a confrontation involving his nephew, Orlando “Baby Lane” Anderson, and members of Shakur’s entourage.
Chief Deputy District Attorney Binu Palal told jurors that the shooting was retaliation for the earlier altercation at the MGM Grand following a Mike Tyson boxing match.
According to the prosecution’s account, Shakur and his associates attacked Anderson inside the casino. Davis and other members of his group allegedly responded by organising a drive-by shooting later that night.
A white Cadillac pulled alongside the BMW carrying Shakur and Knight near the Las Vegas Strip before gunfire erupted. Shakur was struck four times. Knight survived the attack with injuries.
A major part of the prosecution’s case centres on statements Davis made publicly over the years.
Davis discussed his alleged involvement in interviews and in his 2019 memoir, Compton Street Legend. Prosecutors argue that those accounts amount to admissions that place him at the centre of the events leading to Shakur’s killing.
His public comments eventually helped investigators revive the case after years without an arrest.
Las Vegas police searched a property linked to Davis in July 2023. Authorities arrested him in September that year, making him the first person formally charged in Shakur’s killing.
The prosecution now faces the challenge of persuading jurors that Davis’ statements accurately describe his involvement rather than stories he created for publicity or financial gain.
Davis’ lawyer, Michael Sanft, has taken aim at both the original investigation and his client’s public statements. The defence argues that the case lacks sufficient physical and factual evidence linking Davis to the murder.
Sanft has characterised the decades-long police investigation as flawed and incomplete. He also argues that Davis’ comments in interviews and his memoir should not automatically be treated as factual admissions.
The defence says Davis had financial and publicity incentives to embellish his stories and portray himself as someone with inside knowledge of the killing. That disagreement over fact versus fiction is expected to become one of the central battles of the trial.
The opening day also featured testimony from witnesses who encountered Shakur shortly before and immediately after the shooting.
A Las Vegas police officer testified about pulling over the BMW carrying Shakur and Knight before the shooting. Another witness who was travelling nearby described the moment gunfire erupted.
A retired Los Angeles police detective also appeared as prosecutors began presenting evidence from the decades-old investigation.
However, witnesses from the scene do not provide a straightforward identification of Davis as the shooter.
Shakur was 25 years old when he was shot on September 7, 1996.
He had attended the Mike Tyson versus Bruce Seldon boxing match at the MGM Grand earlier that evening. After the confrontation involving Anderson, Shakur left the casino with Knight.
Later that night, their vehicle was stopped at a red light when another car pulled alongside it.
Gunmen opened fire, striking Shakur multiple times.
He was rushed to hospital but died six days later from his injuries.
The killing quickly became one of the most notorious unsolved cases in entertainment history, generating years of speculation about gang rivalries, the East Coast-West Coast rap feud and possible motives.
For almost 30 years, however, no one faced trial for the killing.
Several men allegedly connected to the shooting are now dead.
Anderson, whom investigators had long considered a possible suspect, died in an unrelated gang shooting in Compton in 1998.
Davis therefore remains the only surviving person charged in the case.
Prosecutors’ ability to build their case around Davis’ own accounts has become particularly important because the passage of time has complicated the investigation. Memories have faded, physical evidence is decades old and several people connected to the events can no longer testify.
The trial is expected to last several weeks, with prosecutors planning to present a substantial witness list before the defence presents its case.
One potentially significant figure is Suge Knight, who was in the BMW with Shakur when the shooting happened. Knight is serving a prison sentence for an unrelated conviction, and questions about whether he will testify have attracted considerable attention.
