Tupac Shakur murder suspect recounts moments before 1996 shooting in audio played to jury

The Trial of Duane Davis: A New Look at the Tupac Shakur Murder Case

The trial of Duane Davis, a suspect in the 1996 murder of Tupac Shakur, has been highly publicized. Davis, 63, is accused of orchestrating the killing of the 25-year-old hip-hop superstar in Las Vegas. The case has been reopened, and new evidence has come to light, including an audio interview with Davis in which he recounts the moments leading up to the shooting.

In the interview, Davis claims that his nephew, Orlando 'Baby Lane' Anderson, fired the shots that killed Shakur. Davis said that he and Anderson were in a white Cadillac with two other men when they pulled up alongside a car with Shakur inside, along with hip-hop mogul and Death Row Records head Marion 'Suge' Knight. Davis said that he passed his gun back to Deandre 'Big Dre' Smith, but Smith didn't want it. Anderson, who was also in the back seat, took the weapon and started firing, Davis said.

The interview is key evidence in the state's case against Davis. Prosecutors have told jurors that they will lean heavily on Davis' own admissions in interviews with police and on podcasts, as well as the 2019 memoir he co-authored, 'Compton Street Legend.' A 1996 photo of rapper Tupac Shakur, left, and Marion 'Suge' Knight is displayed during the Duane Davis murder trial at Clark County District Court Regional Justice Center in Las Vegas, Aug. 17, 2026.

Reuters/Steve Marcus/Pool

Davis has pleaded not guilty. His lawyer has called the prosecution's narrative 'fiction' and said Davis was 'full of crap' when he told stories of his involvement, and authorities knew it. He argued investigators failed to back up the statements his client made with evidence.

The Los Angeles police detectives had actually brought Davis in to talk about the 1997 shooting death of Shakur's archrival, the Notorious B.I.G. Davis had briefly been one of the suspects in that still-unsolved killing, but he was later discounted.

'Everybody was a suspect at that time,' Daryn Dupree, one of the detectives in the interview, said in court testimony Thursday.

According to CBS affiliate KLAS-TV, Dupree said he was on a task force investigating the murder of Christopher Wallace, also known as Biggie Smalls. The detectives tell Davis their discussion is confidential.

'Nothing you say today can be used against you,' said Greg Kading, the other detective conducting the interview who described it in a book a few years later.

Some in the audience shook their heads when someone in the audio tells Davis that 'nothing leaves this room.' Dupree adds, 'If you don't say nothing, it's cool, but if you go out there and start talking …'

Prosecutors say Davis did in fact 'go out there and start talking' a decade later when he told stories about the shooting in interviews and the memoir. They said that nullifies any agreement he had with law enforcement over this and other recorded conversations.

Before the trial, KLAS-TV investigative reporter Vanessa Murphy had multiple jailhouse interviews with Davis since his arrest, including one in which Davis said he wasn't even in Las Vegas the night Tupac was shot.

Prosecutors allege Shakur was killed to avenge the rapper's entourage attacking Davis' nephew, Anderson, a few hours earlier at the MGM Grand after a boxing match involving Mike Tyson. Davis was at the Tyson fight but not the brawl, prosecutors say.

Later in the evening, they were in the Cadillac and saw Shakur hanging out of a black BMW with people calling out 'Tupac!' Davis said after Lane fired the shots, he thought Knight was dead. Instead, he suffered only a graze wound.

This undated photo provided by the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department shows the bloodied driver's seat that was occupied by Marion 'Suge' Knight in a car rapper Tupac Shakur was fatally shot in September 1996, in Las Vegas.

AP

Earlier this week, some members of Shakur's family stepped out of the courtroom before prosecutors showed photos from his autopsy. Others remained in the courtroom to face the grim facts of what happened to his body.

Decades after his death, Shakur remains a cultural icon, and one of the most influential and versatile rappers of all time. He died as his popularity was peaking and his film career as an actor was taking off. His legend has only grown in the years since.

In: Tupac Shakur Murder Trial Las Vegas Details on potential motive behind Tupac's murder 03:43 Details on potential motive behind Tupac's murder (03:43)

Trial opens 32 years after American woman murdered in Germany New York Times defamed ex-college player, must pay him millions, jury says She was a California comeback story, serving juvenile probation in a UC Davis dorm for killing a teen, when arrested again Why Did the Murders Stop in Baltimore? View CBS News In CBS News App Open Chrome Safari Continue