Tupac Shakur murder case: Ex-gang leader sentenced

The man convicted of orchestrating murder of rap icon Tupac Shakur Shakur has been sentenced to 40 years to life in prison. While he was gunned down off the Las Vegas Strip over 30 years ago, the convict formerly ran a branch of the feared Crips, one of the patchwork of rival gangs that controlled parts of Los Angeles in the 1990s. 63-year-old DeJuan Davis was convicted in August of first-degree murder with the use of a deadly weapon. Davis is the only person ever charged in the death of Shakur, whose popularity was peaking at the age of 25. While delivering the sentence, prosecutor Mark DeGiacomo said that whatever sentence the court imposes, Davis is guaranteed to die behind bars. The killing went unsolved for years until Davis, a former leader of the Southside Compton Crips gang, gave interviews and published his role in the shooting in his 2019 tell-all memoir. The former Los Angeles gang leader boasted for years of his involvement in the killing of influential hip-hop artists, only to deny it when he came to trial. Davis offered no words of contrition ahead of the sentence being handed down, vowing only to appeal the guilty finding. In accordance with the laws of the state of Nevada, you're hereby judged guilty of first-degree murder with use of a deadly weapon, a felony. I'm going to impose the $25 administrative assessment fee, $3 DNA collection fee, $150 DNA fee, as well as the test. As to the first-degree murder portion, you are sentenced to 20 years to life. As to the deadly weapon enhancement, you are sentenced to a mandatory consecutive 20 years to life. The aggregate sentence is 40 years to life. You have 731 days credit time served toward that sentence. You are hereby remanded. Following the sentencing, Tupac's sister, Sekiva Shakur paid emotional tribute to her brother, a man whom she said was born an icon. I miss my brother. I do, I do, I do. I miss his skin. I miss his scars on his head. He had a strawberry on his chest. I miss the way he ate. I miss his recipe of barbecue chicken. I miss his laugh. He laughed so sloppy. He would slobber when he laughed. He laughed so full. He was so big. Shakur was a key figure in the hip-hop rivalry, pitting the U.S. East Coast against the West Coast. He was just 25 when he was gunned down. A trial heard how Davis ordered the September 7, 1996 killing of the hip-hop artist. After his own nephew had been beaten by members of Shakur's entourage at a Las Vegas casino, The California Lovatus was shot about two hours after the casino confrontation by a gunman in a white Cadillac that pulled up alongside the vehicle in which the rapper was riding. The killing of Shakur, also known as Tupac, was one of America's most famous cold cases, prompting endless debate among music fans over who did it and why. Known for hits including All Eyes on Me, Shakur, the son of Black Panther activists, was raised in Harlem and Baltimore, but became quickly the epitome of California hip-hop when he signed with Los Angeles-based Death Row Records.