WASHINGTON: Nearly 30 years after the killing of US rapper Tupac Shakur, former gang leader Duane Davis has been found guilty of orchestrating his murder, reported German news agency dpa.
A jury in Las Vegas on Monday (Aug 31) found the 63-year-old responsible for the rapper's death in 1996.
Tupac Shakur was one of the most influential and successful rappers of the 1990s and remains one of hip-hop's most defining figures.
The musician, known for hits such as "California Love" and "Changes," sold millions of records worldwide.
The rapper, who was 25 at the time, was shot in a car in Las Vegas on September 7, 1996, and died in hospital six days later.
Davis is not accused of having fired the shots himself. Prosecutors instead regard the former leader of the South Side Compton Crips street gang as the mastermind behind the fatal attack.
According to the prosecution, he organised the retaliation and obtained the gun. Under Nevada state law, a person can also be convicted of murder for helping another person commit the crime.
The former gang leader was arrested in Las Vegas in 2023 and charged with murder with the use of a deadly weapon. He pleaded not guilty in court.
Davis had spoken several times publicly about having been in the white Cadillac from which the shots at Shakur were fired. He said in interviews and wrote in an autobiography that he was the only person in the car who was still alive.
However, he said during a 2008 police interrogation that his nephew had fired the fatal shots. His defence lawyer, Michael Sanft, adopted the strategy of portraying Davis as a liar and braggart who had simply invented the stories to profit from them. — Bernama-dpa
