Duane “Keffe D” Davis, a former leader of the South Side Compton Crips, seems headed for decades in prison. Judge Carli Kierny sentenced him on Tuesday, October 13, to 40 years to life for the 1996 murder of rapper Tupac Shakur, CBS News, the Guardian, DW and Al Jazeera report; the BBC and CNA, carrying Reuters, describe a sentence of at least 40 years. CBS News reports that Kierny said he would receive credit for time already served. Davis, 63, faced the hearing six weeks after a Las Vegas jury convicted him of orchestrating the drive-by shooting near the Las Vegas Strip on September 7, 1996, according to CBS News and the Guardian. The BBC’s sentencing story, which its page metadata dates to 18:54 UTC (11:54 a.m. PT), the earliest report this desk saved, says Davis “has said he will appeal the verdict.” CNA’s Reuters copy says the sentence “will likely see him die in custody,” and Al Jazeera reports that prosecutor Marc DiGiacomo told the hearing that whatever sentence the court imposed, Davis stood “guaranteed to die” behind bars.

Kierny addressed Davis directly before handing down the term. In the Guardian’s account, she said: “For three years, I’ve heard you say some variation of the same thing … ‘Yeah, I was involved in this. But I’m different. I’ve moved on. I got out of Compton. I’m a grandfather now,’” and, in Reuters’ copy carried by CNA, added: “I’m here to tell you that’s not how this works.” DW and CNA quote her next lines as: “You don't get to take a man from his family. You don't get to take his very life, his whole future from him, and just walk away from it. Especially when that man is Tupac Shakur.” The BBC adds: “The world never forgot about him and his death.” Al Jazeera, with Reuters and AP, renders the first passage as a single sentence and quotes her closing line as “The world never forgot about him and his death, and neither did Las Vegas.”

Shakur’s family spoke before the sentence. His sister, Sekyiwa Shakur, told the court, “The loss of Tupac, for a long time, crippled my family,” the BBC reports. The Guardian quotes her: “It was hard sitting, listening over and over and over again to someone describe – bit by bit, how they hunted Tupac Amaru Shakur down,” and reports that she said grief over her brother’s murder led to several hospital stays for depression, suicidal ideation and PTSD. According to Reuters via CNA, she said her brother “was born an icon” and “He was who God trusted to take care of me,” a line the Guardian also carries. Al Jazeera quotes her as saying “This man’s life mattered.” Maurice Shakur, whom the BBC calls the rapper’s brother and the Guardian his stepbrother, asked for “the longest possible sentence,” the BBC reports; Al Jazeera says he called the murder “devastating, heartbreaking and sad.”

Davis said little. CBS News and Al Jazeera report that he asked the judge to return property police took from his home, including photographs. Asked whether he had anything to say, he replied, by the BBC’s account: “I'm good. I'm gonna appeal this case for sure.” Al Jazeera renders the exchange as “No, I’m good,” followed by a pledge to “appeal this case for sure.” CNA’s Reuters copy says Davis “offered no words of contrition,” and the Guardian says he “appeared stoic” as the relatives spoke. DW reports that his lawyer plans to appeal the verdict.

Prosecutors pressed for the maximum. The BBC says DiGiacomo argued that Davis spent years “publicly grandstanding” about his role in a killing that “had wide-ranging effects upon the world,” and Al Jazeera and DW report that DiGiacomo said Davis sought to profit from the killing and deserved the maximum sentence. In a statement quoted by CBS News, Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson said: “Today, justice has been served for Tupac Shakur and his loved ones,” adding, “This case is a reminder that no matter how much time passes, our commitment to seeking justice never wavers.” This desk did not read the district attorney’s statement in its original form. After the verdict, Chief Deputy District Attorney Binu Palal said, per Al Jazeera: “They loved that man. And the arrogance that Mr Davis had in expressing his joy in killing that man ultimately was his undoing.”

The case rested largely on Davis’ own words, the outlets report. The BBC says he described his role in a secret 2008 police interview, given in exchange for protection from prosecution, during an inquiry into the killing of Christopher Wallace, the Notorious B.I.G.; Al Jazeera calls that deal a 2008 proffer agreement granting limited immunity. Davis then told the story in media interviews and in his 2019 memoir, Compton Street Legend, which, prosecutors argued, voided the deal’s protections, the Guardian and Al Jazeera report; the BBC says a judge then allowed his police interview into evidence at the trial. France 24, with Reuters, says the memoir and tapes of his secret meetings with investigators “formed the bulk of the prosecution’s murder case.” Police arrested him in 2023, according to the Guardian and CBS News. The defense, the BBC reports, called his accounts “bravado and exaggeration intended to sell books and make money,” and the Guardian says it argued that no physical evidence, such as a murder weapon, tied him to the killing. CBS News reports that defense attorney Michael Sanft told jurors no evidence beyond Davis’ statements placed him in Las Vegas that night.

The outlets describe a casino fight followed, hours later, by the shooting at a red light. The shooting followed a Mike Tyson fight in Las Vegas, the Guardian and Al Jazeera report; France 24 names Tyson’s opponent as Bruce Seldon. DW and France 24 place a brawl at the MGM Grand casino, in which, France 24 says, Shakur and his entourage beat Davis’ nephew. The Guardian and Al Jazeera name that nephew as Orlando Anderson, and CNA also calls the beaten man Davis’ nephew, though DW calls him Davis’ cousin. About two hours later, Al Jazeera and CNA report, a white Cadillac pulled up beside the BMW carrying Shakur at a red light; France 24 calls Shakur’s vehicle an SUV. Shakur died six days later, aged 25, according to DW, CNA and Al Jazeera. CNA names the BMW’s driver as Death Row Records co-founder Marion “Suge” Knight and says he suffered a wound; France 24 describes a minor injury from a bullet fragment.

Who fired remains disputed. The BBC says prosecutors argued that Davis ordered the shooting and supplied the gun his nephew Orlando Anderson used to open fire; Anderson died in an unrelated 1998 shooting after denying involvement, the BBC reports. Al Jazeera says Davis admitted handing the weapon to two alleged accomplices in the Cadillac’s back seat “who then fired the fatal shots,” and CNA and DW say he handed the gun to someone in the back seat and ordered that person to shoot. CBS News, by contrast, reports that Palal, referencing what it calls Davis’ own account for a time, said Davis shot Shakur. France 24 says prosecutors never named a suspected gunman. Prosecutors said four men rode in the Cadillac and that Davis alone survived to his 2023 arrest, CBS News reports. One sentence in the France 24 copy also says Davis received “a life term in prison without the possibility of parole,” which conflicts with the 40-years-to-life sentence that France 24 and the other outlets report; this desk follows the majority figure and flags the line. The BBC and DW say Shakur sold more than 75 million records.