Las Vegas —
Sheltered from the oppressive August heat, attorneys, members of the public, media and jurors sat listening in a cramped, windowless Las Vegas courtroom as prosecutors worked to prove one thing: that Duane Davis, also known as “Keffe D,” is responsible for Tupac Shakur’s murder.
After a week and a half of testimony, prosecutors rested their case Wednesday after they attempted to reconstruct how they say Davis devised to kill one of the most famous rappers in history, almost 30 years after Shakur died.
At times, Clark County District Attorney Marc DiGiacomo and Chief Deputy District Attorney Binu Palal didn’t even have to use their own words – Davis, in multiple recorded statements, discussed his involvement in the killing. Prosecutors shared almost eight hours of recordings from four different instances in which Davis relayed his version of events – some with small differences, but all placing him in a car next to Shakur on the night of September 7, 1996.
But even with the aid of those recordings, the prosecutors’ work hasn’t been completely painless for prosecutors: They’ve faced unwilling witnesses, opposed to the system trying to convict Davis, as well as the challenge of nearly three decades having passed since the event in question.
