Witness list released as Tupac Shakur murder trial begins

Aug. 10 (UPI) — As attorneys started jury selection Monday for the trial of the man accused of orchestrating the murder of rapper Tupac Shakur in 1996, prosecutors released an official witness list with more than 200 names.

Duane Keith “Keffe D” Davis faces one count of murder with a deadly weapon with the intent to promote, further or ***ist a criminal gang in Shakur’s Sept. 7, 1996, shooting in Las Vegas. The hip-hop artist and actor died six days later.

Prosecutors say Davis provided the weapon and the instructions to members of the South Side Crips gang to kill Shakur in a drive-by shooting, allegedly in retaliation for an attack on his nephew. Davis, who was indicted in 2023, has pleaded not guilty.

USA Today reported that notable names on the list of possible witnesses include Marion “Suge” Knight, a former record executive who co-founded Death Row Records, with which Shakur had a multimillion-dollar contract. Knight was in the car during the drive-by shooting that killed Shakur; he was also shot but survived.

Knight, 61, said he won’t testify in the trial. He is serving an unrelated 28-year sentence for voluntary manslaughter in a 2015 hit-and-run.

Another possible witness is Kirk Burrowes, who was president of Bad Boy Records — allegedly connected with the Crips gang of New York City as Death Row Records was allegedly connected with the Bloods gang of Los Angeles — in 1996.

One of Bad Boy Records’ major stars was rapper Biggie Smalls, called The Notorious B.I.G., who was also killed in a drive-by shooting in Los Angeles six months after Shakur died.

Burrowes co-founded Bad Boy Records with Sean “Diddy” Combs in 1993. He claimed that Combs “orchestrated” Shakur’s shooting, USA Today reported.

Combs has denied this. He is serving a 50-month prison sentence after he was convicted in July 2025 on two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution.

Other possible witnesses include Eugene “Gene” Deal, Combs’ bodyguard at the time of the shooting; Shakur’s sister, Sekyiwa Shakur, and other members of the family; Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo, a former Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department officer; and Yusuf Jah, co-author of Davis’ 2019 memoir, Compton Street Legend: Notorious Keffe D’s Street-Level Accounts of Tupac and Biggie Murders, Death Row Origins, Suge Knight, Puffy Combs and Crooked Cops.