Tupac Shakur murder trial: Opening statements to begin in Las Vegas over rapper's 1996 killing
Opening statements are set to begin Monday in the long‑awaited trial aiming to answer one of hip‑hop's biggest unanswered questions: who killed Tupac Shakur?
Prosecutors say they intend to prove that former Los Angeles gang leader Duane "Keffe D" Davis ordered the 1996 shooting.
Davis is on trial after discussing his alleged role in the killing, including in interviews and while promoting a tell‑all book - a book he now claims he did not write.
In an ABC News exclusive jailhouse interview in 2025, Davis denied all allegations.
"I'm innocent. I ain't kill nobody. Never did ever kill nobody," he said.
Davis, a onetime Los Angeles gang leader who retired to the Vegas suburbs, was arrested in Sept. 2023 and charged with murder with the use of a deadly weapon with the intent to promote, further or assist a criminal gang. He has been in custody ever since.
Opening statements are set to begin at 9:30 a.m. Monday at the Clark County courthouse, a towering structure that sits between the two Las Vegas casino districts and a world away from the peak of the music industry Shakur once occupied.
Davis has pleaded not guilty.
He is accused of being the mastermind behind the attack that killed Shakur, one of the most prominent figures in West Coast rap in the 1990s.
Prosecutors say the events leading up to the shooting began inside the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, where Shakur and former Death Row Records CEO Suge Knight were involved in a brawl with Davis' nephew. Investigators allege Davis began plotting after that fight.
Knight, who is serving time in an unrelated case, told ABC News he believes Davis will struggle to convince jurors that his past statements were untrue.
"Everything he said and talked about, he already told on himself," Knight said.
In the years since Shakur’s murder, what exactly happened in that hail of bullets -- and who pulled the trigger -- was obscured by a lack of physical evidence, feuding cops and the gangland code of silence. Knight, the only eyewitness still living, was in the car with Shakur when he was shot that night, told ABC News he is no more willing to cooperate with law enforcement during Davis’ trial than he has been for the last 30 years.
"To actually get on the stand, and point somebody out, it's worse than taking a gun and shooting that man in the head. Because if you shoot a person in the head, they die once. If you get on the stand and you snitch on that person, they die a million times," Knight told ABC News from prison earlier this month, ahead of Davis’s trial. "Leave me out of it."
Legal analyst Joshua Ritter said Knight's account would be significant if he takes the stand.
"I mean, he's probably the primary percipient witness to the entire murder. He was the driver. He's sitting right next to Tupac as he gets shot. He gets shot himself. These are important parts,"Ritter said.
Prosecutors say that, though Davis did not fire the gun that killed Shakur, the admitted longtime leader of the Southside Crips from the Los Angeles community of Compton was the "shot caller" and riding with the assailant. Davis is accused of orchestrating the murder by allegedly giving his crew the order to open fire on Shakur and Knight in retaliation for a fight earlier that night.
Prosecutors have a lengthy list of potential witnesses -- including original investigators on the case, and members of Davis’ crew who prosecutors alleged were with him in Vegas that night.
Lawyers for Davis plan to call, among others, an expert witness who specializes in false confessions. According to information provided to the court, that witness is expected to testify about coercive interrogation techniques and how memory becomes less reliable over time.
If convicted, the now-63-year-old Davis faces a possible maximum sentence of life in prison. With proceedings expected to last roughly a month, the verdict could conceivably come right on the anniversary of Shakur’s death.
Shakur died at the University Medical Center in Las Vegas on Sept. 13, 1996. He succumbed six days after he and Knight were shot. Knight sustained head injuries in the gunfire.
ABC News contributed to this report.
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