Ex-gang boss Duane "Keffe D" Davis sentenced for orchestrating Tupac Shakur's murder | BBC News

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Let's start with some breaking news because 30 years after Tupac Shakur's murder, the man convicted of organizing the killing has been sentenced. Dwayne Davis, known as Kev, was sentenced in a court in Las Vegas. Shakur was 25 when

he was killed in a shooting in Los Angeles at the height of his career as one of rap's most influential voices. He sold more than 75 million records worldwide. Well, our LA correspondent Shya Khalil is following developments from

California for us. Um, and Shya Tupac Shakur such a legend uh within the music industry and so many questions about his death but those questions now answered and his killer in prison for a very long time. Well, in

the last few moments, we have gotten um a sentencing now, something that Tupac Shakur's family has been waiting for 30 years for because, as you say, Tupac Shakur was 25 at the height of his career when he was

shot in Las Vegas 30 years ago in 1996. And today, Dwayne Kei D. Davis will face uh 40 years to life in prison for the role that he played in his murder. Remember that uh Kei D was not

accused of pulling the trigger, but the jury has found him guilty of organizing of supplying the gun and putting that killing in motion. And I must say, having followed this case and followed this trial throughout um the the

nine days that it it went on in August and today watching the impact statement from Tupac's sister Setuh Setua uh Shakur and his brother Mim who I spoke to before um before the trial, you do get the raw

emotion of what that means to them. Seta stood in front of the judge and spoke about a brother that looked out for her. A brother who uh God entrusted to take care of her as she put it. A

wonderful person, a poet, an actor, an artist who said he could have done great work had he been alive today. She spoke about her mother, Aphenia, a black panther activist who did not live to see that day. She

was fighting tears all the way through. But she said, "I miss I miss my brother." She said how she missed his laugh, how she missed the way um that he teased um his siblings. And she said that he

didn't, you know, he didn't get to live the life or the plan uh or see through the plans uh that he wanted. And she said that a person who took such a life has to sit uh through the

maximum uh punishment uh of this. And she asked for the maximum punishment. So too did Maurice Shakur or Mupim Shakur who said that his brother did not get a trial. He got a death sentence and they both asked

um the judge for maximum uh uh maximum punishment. The judge after that I mean it went on quite quickly actually. The judge after that said that he is to face 40 to life in prison. Keid himself I must

say throughout the trial he sat there quietly most of the time didn't really engage. Today he was much more animated. I would say he had some exchanges, tense exchanges with the judges before the hearing actually started and he

did say that he plans to appeal this for sure. He said, "I plan to appeal it for sure and so too did his lawyer." So this is the sentencing that he got, but we understand that he plans uh

to to appeal that sentencing. Um and Shima, we do have that moment actually. Let's watch the moment uh when that sentence was passed. In accordance with the laws of the state of Nevada, you're hereby judge guilty of first-degree

murder with use of a deadly weapon, a felony. Could impose the $25 administrative assessment fee, $3 DA collection fee, $150 DA fee, as well as the test. As to the first-degree murder portion, you are sentenced to 20 years

to life. As to the deadly weapon enhancement, you are sentenced to an mandatory consecutive 20 years to life. The aggregate sentence is 40 years to life. You have 731 days credit time served toward that sentence. You're hereby remanded.

So the moment of sentencing and Shya, I think perhaps it's worth there will be young people today who won't have even been vaguely born when Tupac Shak Shakur was killed, but they will know his name. Just give us

a sense of how important uh he is to the music community. Look, I think to this day, Tupac Shakur remains one of the most influential voices in hiphop. He was at the height of his career with hits like

All Eyes on Me, with hits like California Love, and I remember very much playing and listening to his music, but it was more about social justice. Is it was more about young black men getting a fair representation in

society. He was an artistic voice, but he was very much a political voice as well. He wanted to have impact. He was also an actor. He had a couple a number of successful films under under his belt. And

I think it was his influence as a figure that stood up uh to police brutality, for example, which was a huge issue at the time in in the mid '9s. He was really a voice for the black community

um at the time. His words, his music still plays out until today. And I think also the fact that his murder 30 years ago had remained for such a long time as part of as hip hop, one of

hip hop's um most high-profile unsolved mysteries. and the way that it played out. The fact that most of the evidence against Keid was from Kefid's own words. The fact that in police interviews, his memoir, he mentioned that he

was in this white Cadillac and that he supplied the weapon he to to the back seat where the where the shots were fired. the way that he was killed in in in Las Vegas after a brawl and a

fight with M with Kit D's nephew after a Mike Tyson game. The whole public persona of him and the public nature and the myth around him has also made him a very unforgettable and enduring voice. Sha Khalil, uh,

thank you for bringing that uh, breaking news there that the man who murdered Tupac Shakur 30 years ago has been sentenced to 40 years to life in prison.