Tupac's accused killer was out for 'revenge', jury hears
The murder trial of Duane 'Keffe D' Davis has begun, 30 years after the death of rapper Tupac Shakur. Prosecutors allege the killing was an act of gang-related revenge ordered by Davis following a confrontation involving his nephew.
Why it matters
The trial marks a significant legal development in one of the most high-profile cold cases in music history, shedding light on the gang violence that defined the 1990s hip-hop era.
Rapper Tupac Shakur was shot dead in an act of gang revenge ordered by a mobster who later boasted of it, jurors heard, as one of America's most anticipated trials got under way, 30 years after the murder.
Duane 'Keffe D' Davis, a one-time leader of the South Side Compton Crips, one of a patchwork of gangs that ran parts of Los Angeles in the 1990s, ordered the killing after his nephew had been beaten by a rival mob, prosecutor Binu Pilal told a Las Vegas court.
"On 7 September 1996, Tupac Shakur publicly, on camera, participated in a humiliating beating of Duane Davis's nephew, Orlando Anderson," he said.
"Then, two and a half hours later, Tupac is gunned down in a drive-by shooting from a white Cadillac in an act of revenge," he added.
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