The Record
The story so far
On September 7, 1996, Tupac Shakur and Death Row Records boss Suge Knight watched Mike Tyson fight at the MGM Grand. In the lobby afterwards, Shakur and his entourage beat a young Compton man named Orlando "Baby Lane" Anderson, and casino cameras caught it. About two and a half hours later a white Cadillac pulled alongside Knight's BMW near the Strip and someone inside opened fire; Shakur, 25, died six days later and the case went cold for decades. Then Anderson's uncle — former South Side Compton Crips leader Duane "Keffe D" Davis — published a 2019 memoir describing how he rode in that Cadillac and passed a gun into the back seat, and spent years repeating versions of the story on camera. Police reopened the file, searched a Henderson home tied to Davis in July 2023, and a Clark County grand jury indicted him that September. Prosecutors say the man who talked his way into a book deal talked his way into a murder charge. Davis says he made the whole thing up to sell books, and his lawyer says nothing independent of Davis's own words connects him to the shooting. — NPR · NPR · TIME · Associated Press (via Jefferson City News-Tribune)
Looking for a specific witness? The full index →
Before trial (8 entries)
Las Vegas police served a search warrant at a Henderson home tied to Davis — the first public sign the 27-year-old case was moving again. They carried out computers, phones, hard drives, photographs, a Vibe magazine featuring Shakur, .40-caliber bullets, and a copy of Davis's own memoir. — NPR · News 3 Las Vegas
A Clark County grand jury indicted Davis for murder with use of a deadly weapon, and police arrested him the same morning as he walked near his home. Chief Deputy District Attorney Marc DiGiacomo called him the "on-ground, on-site commander" who "ordered the death" of Shakur. The grand jury had been sitting on the case for several months. — NPR
Davis pleaded not guilty, standing in shackles before a Clark County judge. The indictment alleges he obtained a gun and passed it to someone in the back seat of the white Cadillac before the shots were fired. — NBC News
Judge Carli Kierny set bail at $750,000 with house arrest, citing Davis's long residence in Henderson and the age of the case — but noted the risk to witnesses: "there are a lot of people who are still scared." Davis never got out; he has been in custody since his 2023 arrest. — Forbes · ABC News
The ruling that made the trial possible. Judge Kierny held that Davis's 2019 memoir "Compton Street Legend" is admissible, rejecting the defense claim that a ghostwriter "sort of made it up" and that Davis promoted it "for entertainment purposes." She found Davis "adopted the book as his own" and encouraged people "to buy it to get the real truth." Prosecutors argued: "A defendant cannot market his confession and then demand that the courthouse treat it as confidential." In the same round of rulings she allowed gang evidence to show motive and ordered jurors partially sequestered. — Associated Press (via Jefferson City News-Tribune) · Associated Press (via The Spokesman-Review)
Judge Kierny ruled that the 2008 police interview — the single most damaging piece of evidence — can be played for jurors. The defense argued detectives had promised Davis it would stay confidential; Davis himself wrote in his memoir, "I sang because they promised I would not be prosecuted." Kierny found he gave up any confidentiality when he published the book and told the world it was the truth. — NPR
Jury selection began. Prosecutors expected to call 35 to 45 witnesses; the defense said it would call witnesses to say Davis was not in Las Vegas that night, plus an expert on false confessions and how memory decays over decades. — NPR · ABC News
A jury was seated after three days of selection — 12 jurors and 4 alternates, 10 women and 6 men, among them a retired gemologist who had never heard of Tupac, a casino worker and a mailman. Several were children, or not yet born, when Shakur was killed. Davis waived his right to have the jury decide his sentence, leaving that to Judge Kierny if he is convicted. — CNN (via LocalNews8) · ABC News
The trial, day by day
Pretrial milestones plus trial days 1-5 (Aug 17-21, 2026). Testimony resumes Monday, Aug 24 — this record is updated as the trial continues.
The last photograph, and the man who sold his own story
Leonard Jefferson told jurors he pulled up beside Shakur at a red light on Las Vegas Boulevard, was waved along toward the club, and took what became the last photograph of the rapper alive; asked whether he staged it, he answered "I did not." Prosecutors then turned to the documentary business: "Death Row Chronicles" director Mario Diaz said Davis was paid to appear and that nothing was scripted, and clips were played of Davis saying, "I am the only one alive who can tell you who really killed Tupac." Jurors also heard a long 2009 police interview in which Davis says, "I wish I never met Puff Daddy period. I swear to God. He messed up my life." Davis himself spoke up in open court, objecting after his home address was read aloud: "This stuff is wrong." — Fox 5 Vegas · Fox Baltimore (Sinclair) · CBS 6 Albany (Sinclair) · 8 News Now
Who testified — 3 witnesses
- Leonard Jefferson — Photographer
Took the last known photograph of Shakur alive, at a stoplight on the Strip; said "I did not" when asked whether he staged it. - Mario Diaz — Director, BET's "Death Row Chronicles"
Testified Davis was paid to appear and the series was unscripted, with no questions given in advance; the defense noted the consultants were the same investigators who wrote a book about the case. - Michael Dorsey — True-crime producer, co-author of a book on the investigation
Worked on the documentary; confirmed Sean Combs' lawyers sent a cease-and-desist letter to Apple TV over the material, though no lawsuit followed.
Jurors finally hear the tape at the centre of the case
Prosecutors played the 2008 recording the whole prosecution is built on. On it, Davis tells detectives the Cadillac came up on Shakur's side of the street, not his: "If we would have been on my side, I would have blasted." He says he passed his gun backward, that one man in the car turned it down, and that his nephew Orlando Anderson took it and fired. Detective Daryn Dupree explained to jurors why Davis was sitting in that room at all: "Everybody was a suspect at that time." Before the tape, a former associate of Davis testified under court order about the gang backdrop the state needs for its enhancement. — NPR · News 3 Las Vegas · 8 News Now
Who testified — 3 witnesses
- Denvonta Lee — Former associate of Davis
Testified under court order that he was initiated into the South Side Crips, and identified Mob Piru — the set tied to Death Row Records, Suge Knight and Shakur — as the rival. - Daryn Dupree — LAPD detective
Continued on the 2008 interview and told jurors, "Everybody was a suspect at that time." - Greg Kading — Former LAPD detective, federal task force
Testified about conducting the 2008 interview with Davis, in which Davis named Anderson as the shooter.
The FBI agent who says Davis wanted it handled in Compton
Retired FBI special agent Wade Lee, who arrested Davis on drug charges in the late 1990s, told jurors Davis denied knowing who killed Shakur. According to Lee, Davis said he was angry enough about his nephew's beating to strike back — but that he would have wanted to do it in Compton, not Las Vegas. LAPD detective Daryn Dupree then began taking jurors inside the 2008 interview, including Davis's claim that Sean "Diddy" Combs had said of Shakur and Knight, "I want to get rid of those dudes," and a remark Dupree said Davis made about the killing of Christopher Wallace: "We did the other one." Combs has never been charged in either killing. Court started in the afternoon that day. — News 3 Las Vegas · Los Angeles Magazine · 8 News Now
Who testified — 2 witnesses
- Wade Lee — Retired FBI special agent
Arrested Davis on drug charges in the late 1990s; testified Davis denied knowing who killed Shakur but said he was mad enough to retaliate — in Compton, not Las Vegas. - Daryn Dupree — LAPD detective
Began describing the 2008 interview, including Davis's claim that Sean Combs said "I want to get rid of those dudes" and Davis's line about the Wallace killing, "We did the other one."
The autopsy photos, and a witness who did not want to be there
Clark County medical examiner Dr. Lisa Gavin walked jurors through three gunshot wounds — one collapsed a lung that surgeons removed — and told them "the manner of death was homicide." Some of Shakur's relatives walked out when the autopsy photos went up; his cousin Zayd Akinyela stayed, saying afterwards, "I think we've been waiting 30 years to grieve properly." Jurors also saw the MGM Grand surveillance video of the lobby beating prosecutors call the motive. Two men from the Death Row Records world testified under subpoena, and one of them handed the defense a line it will use again. — Fox 5 Vegas · PBS News Hour · Associated Press (via Bay News 9) · News 3 Las Vegas
Who testified — 8 witnesses
- Thomas Kern — LVMPD crime scene analyst
Attended the 1996 autopsy and authenticated the photographs shown to jurors, originally shot on Polaroid film. - Dr. Lisa Gavin — Clark County medical examiner
Testified Shakur died of gunshot wounds to the chest and abdomen and that "the manner of death was homicide." - Michael Ingram — MGM Grand investigator
Authenticated the 1996 casino surveillance tapes and explained the hotel reused its tapes back then, which limits what survives. - Kenneth Rios — Former LVMPD sergeant
Responded to the lobby fight; Orlando Anderson refused medical care and declined to press charges, so no report was written. - William Heidmeyer — Former security officer, Maxim Hotel
Testified about the night's events around the hotel. - Dean O'Kelly — Former LVMPD gang detective
Handled crime scene evidence and told jurors the weapon was "a Glock 40." - James McDonald — Head of security at Club 662
Testified only under court order; said "662" spells MOB on a phone keypad, and framed the feud as personal — "Wasn't our beef. Was between Suge Knight and Keffe D" — adding he did not want to "send another Black man to prison." - Reggie Wright Jr. — Former head of Death Row Records security
Said Death Row was 95% of his security business and answered "Absolutely not" when asked whether he had anything to do with the killing.
Two stories about the same man: revenge, or fiction
Chief Deputy District Attorney Binu Palal told jurors this was payback for a beating: "On September 7, 1996, Tupac Shakur publicly, on camera, participated in a humiliating beating of Duane Davis' nephew." He was blunt about what the state is and is not claiming — "Duane Davis did not pull the trigger. But he did plan the shooting in retaliation of the beating of his nephew" — and closed by asking jurors to "finally hold Duane Davis accountable" nearly 30 years on. Defense lawyer Michael Sanft answered that the state was selling a story: "What they are telling you, they are representing as fact, when it's really fiction," and put the whole defense in one line — "No one corroborates any of this." Then the first witnesses took jurors back to the night itself. — Associated Press (via Jefferson City News-Tribune) · CBS News · NPR · News 3 Las Vegas
Who testified — 4 witnesses
- Garry Dale — Former Las Vegas Metro police officer
Stopped Shakur's black BMW earlier that night over a missing plate, then rode with him in the ambulance; asked who shot him, Shakur said "No, we'll take care of it." - Ingrid Stokes — Eyewitness, driving near the shooting
Saw Suge Knight at the wheel with Shakur beside him, heard the gunfire and ducked — she never saw who was shooting. - Brent Becker — Retired LVMPD homicide detective
Described the white Cadillac witnesses saw and forensic work pointing to a .40-caliber Glock, and acknowledged nobody ever picked a shooter out of a photo lineup. - Fred Miller — Former LAPD detective
Explained how Davis first surfaced through the separate investigation into the killing of Christopher "Biggie" Wallace.