Duane “Keffe D” Davis, the man convicted of orchestrating Tupac Shakur’s murder, has been transferred to a maximum-security prison outside Las Vegas. He is now being held at High Desert State Prison near Indian Springs.
The transfer took place on October 22, according to 8 News Now‘s October 29 report, which cited a Nevada Department of Corrections spokesperson. That was nine days after a judge sentenced him to 40 years to life.
Davis, 63, had been held at the Clark County Detention Center since his September 2023 arrest.
He became the first person convicted in Shakur’s killing, nearly three decades after the rapper’s death. Davis continues to maintain his innocence.
High Desert Took Over Nevada’s Maximum-Security Role in 2024
High Desert’s security designation changed in September 2024, when the Nevada Department of Corrections transferred nearly 2,000 inmates between the prison and Ely State Prison. Ely became a medium-security institution as High Desert assumed its former role.
Officials cited increased gang activity and violence, along with Ely’s remote location, in explaining the reorganization. High Desert offered greater staffing resources and closer access to outside medical and law enforcement services, according to FOX5 Las Vegas.
The facility also houses Nevada’s male death-row population. Davis was not sentenced to death, and the transfer report did not identify his specific housing unit.
Judge Imposed Two Consecutive Terms of 20 Years to Life
Clark County District Judge Carli Kierny imposed the sentence on October 13. Davis received 20 years to life for first-degree murder and a consecutive 20-years-to-life term for the use of a deadly weapon.
Kierny rejected the suggestion that changes in Davis’s life since the shooting erased his responsibility. “At this time, you are going to face justice for what you did,” she said, according to ABC News.
Shakur’s siblings, Sekyiwa and Mopreme Shakur, asked the judge to impose the maximum punishment. Sekyiwa described the lasting grief within their family and the work her brother might have accomplished had he lived.
The judge credited Davis with 731 days already served. He requested 1,111 days, but some of that custody time had already been applied to a separate battery sentence, court reporter Meghann Cuniff explained in Legal Affairs and Trials.
Jurors Heard Davis Describe His Role in the Shooting
Shakur was shot on September 7, 1996, while riding in a BMW driven by Death Row Records co-founder Marion “Suge” Knight near the Las Vegas Strip. Gunfire came from a white Cadillac that pulled alongside them. Knight survived, but Shakur died six days later at 25.
Prosecutors said Davis obtained the weapon and organized the attack in retaliation for an earlier confrontation at the MGM Grand. Shakur and members of his entourage had assaulted Davis’s nephew, Orlando “Baby Lane” Anderson. Davis was not accused of firing the fatal shots himself.
The evidence included law enforcement interviews, media appearances and Davis’s 2019 memoir, Compton Street Legend. In those accounts, he described riding in the Cadillac and passing a gun toward the back seat.
Defense attorney Michael Sanft argued that Davis had exaggerated or fabricated those stories for attention and money. He also challenged the lack of physical evidence connecting his client to the crime. Jurors returned a unanimous guilty verdict on August 31 after less than three hours of deliberations, The Associated Press reported.
Davis and His Attorney Say They Will Appeal
In a September interview, Davis claimed he had traveled to Los Angeles after attending the Mike Tyson fight in Las Vegas and was not in the Cadillac when Shakur was shot, as Wealth of Geeks previously reported.
At sentencing, Davis requested the return of photographs and other belongings seized from his home before telling Kierny: “I’m gonna appeal this case for sure.”