Three decades after a drive-by shooting on the Las Vegas Strip silenced one of hip-hop's biggest stars, the man a jury found orchestrated it finally learned his punishment Tuesday: 40 years to life in prison.

Duane "Keffe D" Davis, 63, a former Compton gang leader, was sentenced in Las Vegas by Nevada District Court Judge Carli Kierny to 20 years to life for first-degree murder, plus a consecutive 20 years to life for a deadly-weapon enhancement. He will receive credit for time already served since his 2023 arrest, but at his age, the sentence amounts to what prosecutors wanted all along.

IN MY MIND HE DESERVES THE MAXIMUM POSSIBLE SENTENCE

"In my mind he deserves the maximum possible sentence," prosecutor Marc DiGiacomo told the court, according to Rolling Stone's coverage of the hearing. Davis's attorney, Michael Sanft, said the defense plans to appeal.

A case built on his own words

Tupac Shakur was 25 when he was shot multiple times while riding in a BMW on the Las Vegas Strip on September 7, 1996, hours after watching a Mike Tyson fight at the MGM Grand. He died six days later. The case went unsolved for more than a quarter-century, in part because investigators lacked cooperating witnesses willing to testify.

What ultimately brought charges wasn't new forensic evidence — it was Davis's own repeated public admissions. Prosecutors built their case largely around statements Davis made to police, in television documentaries, and in his own 2019 memoir, in which he described riding in the car and claimed knowledge of who fired the fatal shots. Prosecutors never alleged Davis pulled the trigger himself; instead, they argued he was the "shot caller," directing the attack as revenge for an assault on his nephew, Orlando Anderson, during a confrontation with Shakur's entourage earlier that night. A Las Vegas jury convicted Davis of murder after less than three hours of deliberation, according to CBS News.

Davis's defense argued throughout the trial that his public comments were exaggerations and storytelling rather than confessions, insisting there was no hard evidence placing a gun in his hand or establishing intent to kill.

What's next

Davis's legal team has signaled it will challenge both the conviction and the sentence on appeal, a process that could stretch on for years. For the family of Tupac Shakur — whose music and legacy have only grown since his death — Tuesday's sentencing closes, at least for now, one of hip-hop's most notorious unsolved mysteries turned courtroom drama.