Ex gang member convicted of masterminding Tupac's murder

**Charlotte Gallagher** (0:00)
This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service.
I'm Charlotte Gallagher, and in the early hours of the 1st of September, these are our main stories. A former gang leader has been found guilty of killing the rapper Tupac Shakur. Five days after floods in Nepal, rescue teams race to find hundreds trapped underground. And Argentina's Lionel Messi hangs up his boots and retires from international football. Also in this podcast, a new invention in penguin conservation and...

**Vanessa Friedman** (0:39)
By making this his choice, by saying, I don't want to harm the museum, to harm the city, to add to the tension. You know, he was protecting both his own reputation and that of the museum.

**Charlotte Gallagher** (0:52)
Fashion designer John Galliano pulls out of a major New York exhibition over past racist remarks.
A former gang member has been found guilty of masterminding the murder of the rapper Tupac Shakur in Las Vegas in 1996 Duane Keffe D Davis wasn't accused of actually pulling the trigger, but the 63-year-old has been convicted of orchestrating the shooting. Prosecutors argued it was a revenge attack after Tupac and his entourage attacked and injured Mr. Davis' nephew, Orlando Anderson. Mr. Anderson was killed in an unrelated shooting two years later. Here's the moment the verdict was read out in the Las Vegas courtroom.

**SPEAKER_3** (1:41)
Count one, murder with use of a deadly weapon, guilty of first degree murder with use of a deadly weapon, dated this 31st date of August 2026
Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, is this your verdict as read? So say you want, so say you are.

**Garrett Langley** (1:53)
Yes.

**Charlotte Gallagher** (1:55)
This is the first conviction in a case that has gripped the hip hop world for three decades. Our correspondent in Las Vegas, Regan Morris, told me that Duane Keffe D Davis was found guilty not just of supplying the gun, but also calling the shots.

**Regan Morris** (2:12)
Prosecutors repeatedly called him the shot caller. And traditionally on a cold case after 30 years, you know, this one, especially being so high profile, you would think there would be some DNA or some new evidence, physical evidence. And that's what Keffe D's lawyers kept going on about. There is no new evidence. There is no physical evidence tying him there. There's not even photos and video of him in Las Vegas on that day.
And yet, they, you know, it was his own words, Keffe D's own words in his documentary, in a memoir, in an interview he gave with police, where he is essentially bragging about his role in the killing of Tupac Shakur, that, you know, was the evidence that worked against him. He's his own worst enemy. They played recordings of him talking about the night that Tupac was killed. And he claims that it was his nephew, Orlando, who did pull the trigger, that he passed the gun to the back seat. Orlando was in the right place, and that they were really shot Tupac. They said, you know, it wasn't an East Coast, West Coast rap battle. It was a Compton gangs rivalry. And because Tupac and his entourage had beaten up Orlando early in the night, and then Orlando, according to Keffe's interviews, fired that final shot that killed Tupac Shakur.

**Charlotte Gallagher** (3:30)
And given, as you said, there's no forensic evidence, this happened 30 years ago, is it surprising that the jury were only deliberating for three hours?

**Regan Morris** (3:39)
It was less than three hours.
It was a little surprising. I mean, it really could have gone either way. I mean, you know, his lawyer was quite convincing that there was no new evidence. Why are we doing this? Why are we here? But I think they took Keffe D at his word. Prosecutors said, this man says this, he's done this, he's bragged about this. And it's time. We need some justice for Tupac Shakur. And the jury clearly identified with that and believed that. And it didn't take them long at all.

**Charlotte Gallagher** (4:08)
Are we expecting to hear from Tupac Shakur's family, given it's been 30 years of them been waiting for justice in this case?

**Regan Morris** (4:15)
There was a lot of his family members in court today. His brother, Mopreem, who we have spoken to, just before the trial started, we met him and his wife in Los Angeles. And they have been there throughout the trial in Las Vegas. And for him, he said it's important to his family, if Keffe D did call the shot, that they did want to see him convicted.
But he said there's no such thing as justice for them, because Tupac Shakur is gone and he wants his brother back.