Former gang leader accused of ordering Tupac Shakur’s killing goes on trial
LAS VEGAS: The trial of a man accused of orchestrating the killing of Tupac Shakur started this week with jury selection, almost 30 years after the rap legend was gunned down near the Las Vegas Strip.not guilty to murder with a deadly weapon with the intent to promote, further or assist a criminal gang in the rapper’s death. At the time, Davis was a leader of the South Side Compton Crips in CaliforniaWhoever had anything to do with it, whoever set it up, whoever had any hand in it should be locked up in prison,” said Shakur’s cousin, Kendrick Lesane.
Thirty years after his death, Shakur remains a cultural icon and is considered one of the most influential and versatile rappers of all time.
Shakur’s death at age 25 came as his fourth solo album had sold 5 million copies.Davis sat next to his attorney during the trial in Clark County District Court while Nevada Judge Carli Kierny asked a group of 75 potential jurors whether they have any medical issues, language barriers or conflicts with serving in a trial scheduled to last about a month.
Binu Palal, the county’s chief deputy district attorney, listed names of people involved in the case to see if potential jurors were familiar with them, including Knight and Sean “Diddy” Combs.Meanwhile, Davis sat quietly and appeared calm, occasionally whispering to his defense attorney, Michael Sanft, as jurors responded to questions.
Davis said that if he’s convicted, he wants the judge to decide his sentence, not the jury.
Prosecutors are not accusing Davis of pulling the trigger that night, and the trial likely won’t confirm who did. Instead, prosecutors plan to show that Davis made the calls that led to Shakur’s death and provided Davis co-wrote the memoir “Compton Street Legends,” which vividly describes the shooting. The book says Davis obtained a handgun from an associate and tossed it into the back seat of the Cadillac but did not say who fired the fatal shots.
Orlando “Baby Lane” Anderson, Davis’ nephew, has long been considered the suspect who pulled the trigger, but charges were never brought against him. He died two years after Shakur in an unrelated gang shootout in Compton.