Tupac shooting suspect sentenced in unrelated jailhouse fight

(CN) — The man accused of gunning down rap icon Tupac Shakur will spend 16 to 40 months in prison for a jailhouse fight that occurred while awaiting his murder trial.

Following a short trial in April, a Nevada jury convicted Duane “Keffe D” Davis of battery by a prisoner and challenges to fight — a felony and gross misdemeanor, respectively — for the December 2024 altercation.

On Tuesday, Clark County District Court Judge Nadia Krall sentenced Davis to 16 to 40 months in prison for the offenses. Davis has maintained his innocence, arguing his participation in the fight was merely self-defense.

During the trial, the jury was shown surveillance footage of Davis passing by an inmate in a jail common area before the two noticed one another and ended up in a physical fight. Davis’ attorney argued the video showed that Rochlon Hamilton, the other man involved in the fight and an inmate held two cells down from Davis, was the instigator.

Taped phone calls after the fight recorded Davis bragging about the altercation, saying “I get dirty, dude,” and “dog handles his business.”

Davis pleaded not guilty and later sought a new trial, claiming that juror misconduct had deprived him of a fair trial. His son and a Tupac documentarian testified that they heard a juror discuss the case in a courtroom hallway, claiming the juror said that a little man in a jailhouse fight must work harder to maintain his reputation.

Yet, all 13 jurors and alternates testified that they never discussed the case outside deliberations and never heard anyone make the claim about a little guy in jail. The juror accused of making the comment firmly denied doing so, testifying he was unaware of Davis’ connection to Shakur at the time. Krall found the jurors’ testimony more credible than that of Davis’ son and the documentarian, denying the bid for a new trial.

Davis has been held in jail while awaiting the murder trial for the killing of Shakur, which is set for February 2026. He’s pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder in the legendary rapper’s death.

Davis wrote in a memoir that he was in a car with his nephew, Orlando “Baby Lane” Anderson, when Anderson shot and killed Shakur near the Las Vegas Strip in 1996. Anderson, however, denied his involvement in the fatal shooting. He died in a 1998 shooting in Compton, California.

Authorities believe Shakur’s murder stemmed from a gang dispute between East Coast members of the Bloods and the West Coast group called the Crips. Davis was part of the latter group that competed for dominance in the “gangster rap” genre.