Suspect in drive-by shooting of Tupac Shakur pleads not guilty to murder

Duane “Keffe D” Davis pleaded not guilty on Thursday to shooting rapper Tupac Shakur.

Davis, 60, was indicted by a Clark County grand jury in September on one count of murder with a deadly weapon. That same month, he became the first and only suspect arrested in Shakur’s 1996 murder case.

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(Ethan Miller/Pool Photo via AP)

Davis has long confirmed that he was in the Cadillac that opened fire on Shakur, who was 25 at the time and died a week later. However, he claimed the gunfire came from the back seat while he was in the front seat. The car pulled up to Shakur at a red light to commit the shooting along the Las Vegas strip. Davis made this admission in 2010 while he was facing a life-long sentence for drug charges.

The late Orlando “Baby Lane” Anderson was implicated by Davis, who is his uncle, as one of the two people in the back seat. Anderson was 21 at the time and had been involved in a brawl with Shakur three weeks earlier in the MGM Grand Hotel following a Mike Tyson fight. At the time, Anderson was an alleged member of an opposing gang, the South Side Crips, and would die two years later in another shooting in Compton, California. Before he died, he denied being involved in Shakur’s murder.

As for the other two in the car at the time, Terrence “Bubble Up” Brown and DeAndre “Freaky” Smith, they have also since died, leaving Davis as the lone surviving witness.

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Shakur had just released his fourth solo album when he died. He would go on to be nominated for a Grammy eight times in his career. The rapper also appeared in six movies as a budding actor.

Clark County District Judge Tierra Jones assured Davis that prosecutors are not seeking the death penalty if he is found guilty. However, Davis still faces a life sentence in prison if convicted.