LAS VEGAS — Duane "Keffe D" Davis, a former street gang leader, was sentenced on Tuesday to 40 years to life in prison for orchestrating the 1996 drive-by shooting that killed hip-hop star Tupac Shakur in Las Vegas, capping the prosecution of a long-unsolved murder that loomed over the golden age of rap music.

Davis, 63, showed no emotion as Judge Carli Kierny imposed two consecutive terms of 20 years to life — one for first-degree murder and one for use of a deadly weapon — during an hour-long proceeding in a Las Vegas courtroom. A jury found him guilty of first-degree murder in August.

Shackled at the waist and dressed in blue prison garb, Davis argued briefly with the judge over how much credit he was due for time already served but said little else during the hearing.

Given a final opportunity to formally address the court, he said: "I just want my stuff back that they took out of my house," referring to evidence investigators had removed from his residence.

Pressed by Kierny on whether he had anything more to add before she pronounced sentence, Davis replied: "I'm good. I'm going to appeal this case, for sure." His lawyer, Michael Sanft, also vowed an appeal. The twin pledges mean the sentencing is not the final step in the case's path through the courts.

Legacy of violence

Until Davis's arrest in 2023, the killing of Shakur — shot while riding in the passenger seat of an SUV driven by his record executive, Marion "Suge" Knight — had stood for nearly three decades as one of America's most notorious cold cases.

The murder silenced one of rap's most commercially successful and influential artists, heightened the image of violence permeating 1990s hip-hop culture and stoked the era's infamous East Coast-West Coast "gangsta" rap feud.

Despite Davis's conviction — he remains the only person ever charged in connection with Shakur's killing — the question of who pulled the trigger in the fatal shooting of the 25-year-old rap legend has never been conclusively decided.

Shakur, who became arguably more popular in death than in life, was best known for raw lyrics laced with violence, sex and profanity describing life in the ghetto. His fourth studio album, All Eyez on Me, released months before his murder, celebrated his own outlaw image. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2017.

In a tearful victim-impact statement delivered in court on Tuesday, the slain rapper's sister, Sekyiwa Shakur, 51, said their mother "raised him to be a human rights activist" and tried to instill in him a belief that he could change the world for the better.

"He believed her," Sekyiwa Shakur, dressed in black, told the judge. "He went out in the world to do that. And I believe he would have done it."

'The world never forgot'

Davis was tried and convicted of masterminding the murder to avenge the beating of his nephew by Shakur and members of the rapper's entourage inside the MGM Grand casino on the Las Vegas Strip on Sept. 7, 1996.

Authorities said they had long believed Davis was involved in Shakur's killing but lacked sufficient evidence to charge him. That changed when he went public with his story in media appearances and a memoir that, along with tapes of his secret meetings with investigators, formed the bulk of the prosecution's murder case.

In his book, Compton Street Legend, Davis himself wrote that he was considered a suspect in the murders of both Shakur and Christopher Wallace, the rival rapper better known as The Notorious B.I.G., who was shot and killed in Los Angeles in March 1997 in a killing for which no one has ever been charged.

Addressing Davis on Tuesday, Kierny said his assertions that he had changed since the 1990s and moved on fell short.

"You don't get to take a man from his family," the judge said, referring to Shakur. "The world never forgot about him."

Fatal shooting sparked by casino brawl

The clash at the casino stemmed from hostility between two Los Angeles-area street gangs — the South Side Compton Crips, of which Davis was the self-described leader, and Mob Piru, which was associated with Shakur, Knight and their music label, Death Row Records.

Members of both groups were in Las Vegas that night to a world heavyweight title boxing match between Mike Tyson and Bruce Seldon.

Within hours of the casino brawl, Davis ushered his nephew and two other associates into a white Cadillac and went looking for Shakur and Knight, determined to settle scores, according to an account Davis later gave police in an unrelated investigation and that prosecutors cited during his murder trial.

Davis said he passed a gun to the two men seated behind him in the Cadillac, one of whom opened fire through the window when they caught up with, and pulled alongside, Knight and Shakur's vehicle in traffic.

Shakur was struck four times and died in a hospital six days later. Knight, who suffered a minor injury from a bullet fragment that grazed his head, is now serving a 28-year prison term on an unrelated voluntary manslaughter conviction.

While Davis was never accused of actually firing the shots that killed Shakur — Nevada law allows someone to be charged with murder as a participant in the crime — prosecutors have never named a suspected gunman. All three other men in the Cadillac with Davis that night have since died.

— Reuters