A Las Vegas jury deliberated for just under three hours Monday before finding Duane "Keffe D" Davis, 63, guilty of first-degree murder with use of a deadly weapon, resolving in an afternoon a case that took nearly 30 years to reach a courtroom.
Davis was the only person ever charged with a crime in the September 7, 1996 drive-by shooting that killed Tupac Shakur near the Las Vegas Strip.
Prosecutors argued he was the shot-caller for the South Side Compton Crips who orchestrated the attack in retaliation after members of Shakur's entourage beat Davis's nephew in a casino lobby hours earlier.
He obtained a gun and handed it to the shooter in the back seat of a white Cadillac that pulled alongside Shakur's BMW at a red light.
What convicted him was largely his own mouth. Davis gave police interviews in which he described his role. He wrote a 2019 memoir called Compton Street Legend in which he admitted involvement. He gave media interviews over the years.
His defense attorney called the confessions "fiction" designed to sell books. The jury of 10 women and six men did not agree.
They heard from 24 prosecution witnesses and 3 defense witnesses over 11 days. Then they came back quickly.
Tupac Shakur's family embraced and wept in the courtroom when the verdict was read. Davis, who faces life in prison without parole, told the judge he plans to appeal. Sentencing is October 13.
Shakur was 25 years old when he was shot. He died six days later.