30 years later, a former gang member will stand trial for Tupac’s murder

It’s bee th ee decades filled with myste y, co spi acies – a d a ge .

The d ive-by shooti g that killed ap supe sta Tupac Shaku o 7 Septembe 1996 cha ged the t ajecto y of hip-hop a d elevated the appe f om the face of the ge e to a cultu al ico .

His killi g became o e of popula cultu e’s g eat myste ies, with cou tless theo ies but o a ests u til 2023, whe Dua e “Keffe D” Davis was u expectedly cha ged with mu de i g the famous appe .

The 63-yea -old fo me ga g boss is due to sta d t ial i Las Vegas, whe e he is accused of mu de with a deadly weapo with the i te t to p omote, fu the o assist a c imi al ga g. He’s pleaded ot guilty. If co victed, he faces life i p iso without pa ole.

The t ial is likely to u avel the i t icacies of the bitte a d deadly East Coast vs West Coast ap ival ies a d tu f wa s betwee the Bloods a d the C ips st eet ga gs that we e immo talised i ap ly ics a d ews epo ts i the 1990s.

It could also i clude seve al celeb ity wit esses – i cludi g Suge K ight, the fo me CEO of Death Row Reco ds, who has bee thought of as the last su vivi g wit ess to Shaku ‘s death.

But the complicated case hi ges almost exclusively o o e key piece of evide ce: a book co-autho ed by Davis that he has a gued is pa tially a piece of fictio .

Ju y selectio i the case bega o Mo day, with ope i g a gume ts slated to sta t o 17 August.

To u de sta d how the case became so mythologised, you have to go back to ival ies that g ew la ge tha the me at its ce t e.

I the Los A geles ga g la dscape of the 1990s, the e was a vicious tu f wa betwee the Bloods, ofte ep ese ted by the colo ed, a d C ips, who ofte wo e blue. But that te ito ial dispute sp ead th ough the ai waves as pa t of a bigge atio al ival y – East Coast vs West Coast ap. The ge e dispute was ep ese ted by two ival eco d compa ies that defi ed 1990s hip-hop: K ight’s Death Row Reco ds a d Sea “Diddy” Combs’ Bad Boy Reco ds.

“The fu y thi g about it is Tupac is actually a East Coast appe ,” said Jeff Pea lma , autho of O ly God Ca Judge Me: The Ma y Lives of Tupac Shaku .

Bo i New Yo k City, Tupac moved to o the Califo ia as a tee age . He became k ow as a Southe Califo ia appe afte sig i g with Death Row Reco ds, which i cluded acts like S oop Dogg a d D D e.

Sa ti Elijah Holley, autho of A Ame ika Family: The Shaku s a d the Natio They C eated, says the Death Row pe so a eve told the whole sto y.

Tupac’s mothe Afe i was a Black Pa the a d he g ew up a ou d the Black libe atio moveme t. Holley says his music became his politics: “His activism was his a t, his ly ics.”

He acted i a umbe of Hollywood movies, a d eleased hip-hop’s fi st double album, All Eyez o Me, which sold ove 5,000,000 copies. That album, which debuted mo ths befo e his death, ceme ted his place i the ca o of ga gsta ap, a ge e that celeb ated the viole t life of st eet c imi als a d d ug deale s.

Afte he was shot i Las Vegas o 7 Septembe 1996, he became immo talised as a ki d of ma ty fo the lifestyle he helped make famous.

That fatal ight bega whe Tupac a d K ight atte ded a boxi g match betwee Mike Tyso a d B uce Seldo at the MGM G a d.

Afte the match, su veilla ce footage captu ed Tupac a d membe s of his e tou age, who police have said we e associated the Mob Pi u Bloods st eet ga g, attacki g a ma amed O la do A de so , a alleged membe of the South Side Compto C ips.

About th ee hou s afte the attack, Tupac was idi g i the passe ge seat of K ight’s BMW d ivi g th ough Las Vegas whe a white Cadillac pulled alo gside them a d ope ed fi e.

Tupac was hit fou times a d died six days late .

Fo ea ly th ee decades, the killi g emai ed o e of Ame ica’s most famous u solved mu de s. The e is o si gle expla atio why.

Las Vegas police have lo g said wit esses efused to coope ate. Membe s of Tupac’s e tou age said police i itially t eated them like suspects a d failed to follow impo ta t leads.

Withi weeks of the shooti g, i vestigato s had ide tified A de so f om the MGM footage a d questio ed him.

He de ied i volveme t a d was eve cha ged; he was killed i a u elated shooti g i 1998.

Ove the yea s, police say they pu sued thousa ds of tips, but the case stalled amid disappea i g wit esses, ma y of whom we e also killed i ga g- elated shooti gs, limited physical evide ce, a d a st eet code that fo bade coope atio with police.

It was yea s late whe A de so ‘s u cle, Davis, sta ted talki g a d acco di g to police, blew the case wide ope agai .

It was ultimately the death of a othe lege da y appe that helped u avel Tupac’s shooti g death.

Mo ths afte Shaku was gu ed dow , Biggie Smalls o the Noto ious BIG, was killed i a d ive-by shooti g i Los A geles.

Both appe s we e the sta s of thei espective ival eco d labels – Shaku with Death Row Reco ds a d Biggie with Bad Boy Reco ds.

Biggie’s case has emai ed u solved, with o a ests o suspects.

I the mid 2000’s the Los A geles Police Depa tme t eope ed the i vestigatio a d spoke with Davis, who was at a pa ty with Biggie befo e the fatal shooti g. While Davis said he did ‘t have i fo matio about Biggie’s death, he did have k owledge i Tupac’s case a d sha ed that he was i the ca whe the appe was shot a d killed. He told police the i fo matio i excha ge that he ot be cha ged.

That deal stuck u til yea s late , whe Davis we t public with his k owledge.

He co-autho ed a memoi i 2019 titled Compto St eet Lege d, that claimed he ot o ly was i side the vehicle whe Tupac was shot but also he was the pe so who “tossed” the gu used to kill him i to the backseat of the Cadillac. He eve claimed to be the pe so who ope ed fi e.

Davis also elabo ated o the shooti g to the media, detaili g i fo matio to epo te s i i te views.

Las Vegas police said his public stateme ts had ” ei vigo ated” the i vestigatio . Ove the ext couple of yea s they spe t time co obo ati g Davis’ accou t a d the i 2023, sea ched his home a d seized multiple compute s, two tubs of photog aphs a d a slew of Tupac- elated mate ial, i cludi g a Vibe magazi e.

He was a ested late that yea .

P osecuto s have alleged that Tupac’s killi g was i etaliatio fo the beati g of Davis’ ephew – O la do A de so – just hou s befo e the shooti g.

They claim that Davis was the a chitect of the c ime, who o de ed the shooti g a d supplied the deadly weapo to fu the ga g c imi al co duct.

Nevada p osecuto s a gued that by publicly talki g about what happe ed o the ight of Tupac’s death a d w iti g a book whe e he claimed to have supplied the gu , Davis had b oke the ag eeme t he e te ed with law e fo ceme t. A judge late sided with the p osecuto ‘s a gume t, ope i g the doo fo Davis’s a est.

Davis a d his defe ce team have a gued that the book was co-autho ed a d sectio s we e embellished o fictio alised to make a p ofit, a d they should ot be viewed as di ect admissio s. I a i te view last week with a local TV ews statio , Davis de ied bei g i Las Vegas whe Tupac was killed a d dista ced himself f om the memoi that lists him as a autho .

“I did ot w ite that book,” Davis told Fox 5. “A ghost w ite w ote that.”

He also said he might take the sta d a d testify at his t ial. “If I have to, I will.”

“This is what makes this case so fasci ati g. The two biggest pieces of evide ce agai st Keffe D came f om Keffe D,” t ial atto ey Shau Ke t told the BBC. “Keffe D has the ight to take the sta d a d say ‘I made all this up. I lied to sell copies of the book. I lied to the police. I’m a lia but I did ot mu de Tupac.'”

Davis has also publicly stated multiple times that Bad Boy Reco ds head Sea “Diddy” Combs had offe ed him $1m to kill Death Row Reco ds ivals Tupac a d K ight.

Combs is cu e tly se vi g a 50-mo th p iso se te ce afte bei g co victed fo two cou ts of t a spo tatio fo the pu poses of p ostitutio i New Yo k. He has epeatedly de ied allegatio s that he was i volved i Tupac’s death.

P osecuto s have eleased a list of pote tial wit esses who could be called to testify, with ove 200 ames, i cludi g membe s of Tupac’s family, fo me mayo of Las Vegas Osca Goodma a d fo me Los A geles police Detective G eg Kadi g.

P osecuto s have also amed K ight, although it’s u clea if the ap imp esa io will testify, as he’s p eviously said he would ot.

“This would be huge as he has eve offe ed law e fo ceme t a y i fo matio that would lead to the co victio of a yo e,” Ke t said. “This t ial is goi g to be a legal schola ‘s Supe Bowl.”

Get all the latest t ial updates o the BBC Sou ds ‘Fame U de Fi e: The Tupac Mu de T ial’ podcast available whe eve you get you BBC podcasts.