Ex-gang boss Duane ‘Keffe D’ Davis sentenced to 40 years for orchestrating Tupac Shakur’s murder

Former gang boss Duane ‘Keffe D’ Davis has been sentenced to 40 years in prison for orchestrating the murder of rapper Tupac Shakur .

READ MORE: Who killed Tupac? Everything we know about hip-hop’s greatest mystery The rapper was gunned down on September 7 1996, after a car drove alongside him and opened fire as he travelled from a Mike Tyson boxing match.

He died from his injuries six days later .

While he did not pull the trigger directly, Davis was accused of planning the murder, as a result of his nephew Orlando Anderson being involved in an altercation with Shakur just hours beforehand.

Davis denied the accusations and entered a not guilty plea.

At the start of September, Duane ‘Keffe D’ Davis was found guilty of orchestrating the late rapper’s murder and convicted of one count of murder with a deadly weapon – a move which Tupac’s family said they were “elated and relieved” by .

Davis has now been sentenced to at least 40 years in prison, and has said he will appeal the verdict.

In court, prosecutors argued that although Davis did not fire the gun himself, he was the ringleader in the group that committed the murder, and highlighted how he even wrote about the crime in his 2019 memoir Compton Street Legend.

Duane ‘Keffe D’ Davis has been sentenced to 40 years to life in prison for orchestrating the murder of Tupac Shakur. pic.twitter.com/5cMoOFXBfO — Pop Base (@PopBase) October 13, 2026 In the book, Davis acknowledged being inside the white Cadillac during the drive-by shooting, and also wrote that he was the one who provided the gun to the person who pulled the trigger that night.

In court, Tupac’s brother Maurice requested the judge give the “longest possible sentence” to Davis, and the victim’s sister Sekyiwa told the court that the murder “for a long time, crippled my family” (via BBC News ).

“He had so much promise, intentions for a better world,” she also said that her brother had hoped to help his local community, and shared hopes that Davis will use his time in prison to “contemplate what you’ve done to the world, not just to me”.

Davis was asked if he had anything to say after the sentence was handed down, to which he replied: “I’m good.

I’m gonna appeal this case for sure”.

Judge Carli Kierny then told him: “You don’t get to take a man from his family.