By Jack Queen
Aug 31 (Reuters) - A Las Vegas jury on Monday found an ex-gang leader guilty of murder in a case accusing him of masterminding the drive-by killing of legendary hip-hop artist Tupac Shakur, bringing a decades-old cold case to a close.
Duane "Keffe D" Davis, 63, was charged in Nevada's Clark County with a single count of murder using a deadly weapon. He had pleaded not guilty.
Davis was accused of leading a group of men to kill Shakur, 25, who was one of rap's most commercially successful
and influential artists, in retaliation for the beating of Davis' nephew.
Police had said they long suspected Davis but did not have enough evidence to charge him until he went public with his story in media appearances and a memoir, which along with tapes of his secret meetings with investigators made up the bulk of the prosecution’s case.
Davis’ lawyer said his client's words were mere bravado and could not be corroborated by other evidence.
The trial began on August 17. Prosecutors played hours of recorded conversations in which Davis said he was enraged after Shakur and his entourage beat up Davis’ nephew at a Las Vegas casino on September 7, 1996.
Davis and three other men, including his nephew, went looking for Shakur and record label executive Marion “Suge” Knight in a white Cadillac on the night of the beating, he said. Davis said he passed a gun to the backseat, and when they found Knight and Shakur’s car, one of the two men in the back opened fire.
Prosecutors have not named the shooter, and the three other men who were in the car have since died. Under Nevada law, Davis can be charged with murder even though he did not pull the trigger.
Davis was a leader of the Southside Compton Crips, a Los Angeles-area street gang that feuded with rival gang Mob Piru, which was associated with Shakur and his record label Death Row Records.
Shakur's killing in 1996 became a seminal moment in rap history and heightened hip-hop culture's violent image during “gangsta” rap’s heyday, an era defined by feuding between East and West Coast artists.
(Reporting by Jack Queen in New York; Editing by Bill Berkrot)
