Tupac Shakur Murder Trial Begins Nearly 30 Years After Shooting

Prosecutors allege that Davis helped organize the Sept. 7, 1996, drive-by shooting after Shakur was involved in a physical confrontation with Davis' nephew, Orlando Anderson, at the MGM Grand earlier that night. Shakur was riding in a BMW driven by Death Row Records co-founder Marion “Suge” Knight when a white Cadillac pulled alongside the vehicle near the Las Vegas Strip and gunfire erupted. Shakur was struck multiple times and died six days later at age 25. Davis was among four men prosecutors say were inside the Cadillac, and authorities allege he helped obtain the gun used in the attack. Anderson, who was considered a suspect but was never charged, was killed in an unrelated shooting in California in 1998.

The case remained dormant for years before investigators renewed the investigation and arrested Davis in 2023. Prosecutors are expected to rely in part on statements Davis made publicly over the years, including accounts in interviews and a 2019 memoir in which he described being in the vehicle involved in the shooting. Davis' defense has challenged the reliability and meaning of those statements and maintains that he did not commit the murder. About 75 prospective jurors were being evaluated for possible bias as proceedings began in Las Vegas, with the trial expected to last several weeks. The prosecution's case could also revisit the longstanding rivalry between the West Coast and East Coast factions of the 1990s hip-hop industry, although the specific circumstances and responsibility for Shakur's killing remain contested in court.

Sources: Reuters, NBC News, The Associated Press and CBS News.