Nearly three decades after Tupac Shakur was gunned down on the Las Vegas Strip, the trial of the man accused of orchestrating his killing has drawn a familiar name from hip-hop’s most enduring feud back into the spotlight: Sean “Diddy” Combs.
Prosecutors have placed Combs on the witness list for the trial of Duane “Keffe D” Davis, the 63-year-old former Compton street gang figure charged with murder with a deadly weapon in connection with the September 1996 drive-by shooting that killed Shakur.
According to reporting on the case, state prosecutors named Combs during proceedings while connecting him to Davis, the man accused of directing the attack that ended the 25-year-old rapper’s life.
Opening statements got underway this week in Clark County District Court, capping a prosecution that took nearly 30 years to materialize.
Twelve jurors and four alternates, ten women and six men, were seated after days of questioning more than 100 Clark County residents summoned for jury duty in a case that has haunted investigators and obsessed music fans in equal measure.
The trial, expected to last roughly a month, began August 10, thirty years after one of America’s most high-profile unsolved killings. Proceedings are unlikely to definitively establish who actually fired the shots that killed Shakur on the night of September 7, 1996, as he left a Mike Tyson fight at the MGM Grand.
Shakur died from his wounds six days later at age 25. He was riding in a BMW driven by Death Row Records founder Marion “Suge” Knight when a white Cadillac pulled alongside and opened fire.
Davis, a former leader of the South Side Compton Crips, remains the first and only person ever charged in Shakur’s death, a case that has fueled decades of speculation, documentaries, books, and conspiracy theories.
Prosecutors allege he supplied the firearm and directed the attack in retaliation for an earlier altercation, though they stop short of accusing him of pulling the trigger himself.
Much of the case against Davis rests on his own words. The prosecution exists largely because of admissions Davis made himself, most notably in his 2019 memoir, in which he described being in the front seat of the Cadillac while one of two men in the back seat fired the fatal shots.
He was arrested in September 2023 and entered a not guilty plea two months later. If convicted, he faces a possible sentence of life in prison.
Combs’ inclusion on the roughly 200-name witness list reflects the tangled rivalries of the mid-1990s East Coast–West Coast hip-hop wars, in which he and his Bad Boy Records were frequently painted as adversaries of Knight’s Death Row label.
Also named on the list is Kirk Burrowes, who co-founded Bad Boy Records alongside Combs; according to reporting, Burrowes has claimed Combs “orchestrated” Shakur’s shooting, an allegation Combs has denied. Combs’ former bodyguard, Eugene “Gene” Deal, also appears on the list.
Combs himself is not expected to testify in person under ordinary circumstances; he is currently serving a 50-month federal sentence after being convicted in July 2025 on two counts related to transportation to engage in prostitution.
Other notable names on the witness list include Knight, who has previously said he would not testify; Nevada Governor Joe Lombardo, a former Las Vegas police officer; members of Shakur’s family, including his sister Sekyiwa Shakur; and Yusuf Jah, co-author of Davis’ memoir.
The trial continues this week, with testimony expected to stretch into September.
WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW
After nearly 30 years, Duane “Keffe D” Davis is finally standing trial for orchestrating Tupac Shakur’s murder, and Sean “Diddy” Combs has been pulled into the case as a named witness, with prosecutors linking him to Davis amid longstanding allegations (which Combs denies) that he had a hand in the killing.
This trial isn’t just about resolving a 30-year-old murder it’s reopening the East Coast–West Coast rivalry at the heart of it, with a witness list of 200+ names, including Combs himself, expected to keep hip-hop’s biggest mystery in the headlines for weeks to come.
