Nearly 30 years after the murder of Tupac Shakur became one of hip-hop’s biggest unsolved mysteries, a jury has found Duane “Keffe D” Davis guilty of first-degree murder with a deadly weapon. The 63-year-old was convicted in Las Vegas after jurors deliberated for less than three hours. While prosecutors did not accuse Davis of actually firing the shots that killed Tupac, they argued he orchestrated the retaliatory attack, obtained the gun and was inside the white Cadillac from which the shots were fired. Davis now faces a potential life sentence and has indicated that he intends to appeal.

Tupac was just 25 when he was shot in Las Vegas on September 7, 1996. Earlier that evening, the rapper and members of his entourage had been involved in an altercation with Orlando “Baby Lane” Anderson, Davis’ nephew, inside the MGM Grand following a Mike Tyson fight.

Hours later, Tupac was travelling in a BMW driven by Death Row Records co-founder Suge Knight when a Cadillac pulled alongside them and several shots were fired. Tupac died from his injuries six days later.

Anderson was long suspected by authorities of being the gunman but maintained his innocence and was never charged before his death in 1998. The uncertainty surrounding exactly who pulled the trigger would go on to fuel decades of theories surrounding Tupac’s murder.

The case remained cold until Davis’ own words increasingly became central to the investigation. Over the years, he discussed the shooting with investigators, appeared in interviews and detailed his involvement in his 2019 memoir Compton Street Legend. Prosecutors ultimately used hours of Davis’ previous statements against him, arguing he had repeatedly placed himself at the centre of the attack. His defence maintained that the stories were exaggerated or fabricated for money and notoriety.

For hip-hop, the verdict closes a legal chapter that has remained open for almost three decades. Tupac’s death at the height of the East Coast-West Coast era became bigger than a murder investigation, inspiring documentaries, books, conspiracy theories and endless debate over who was ultimately responsible.

However, the guilty verdict hasn’t ended the speculation.

Some online commenters continue to question whether Davis is taking the fall for someone else, while others have pointed to his years of interviews and argued that he effectively implicated himself. There is also still debate surrounding the identity of the actual gunman — something the verdict itself does not definitively settle.

Another sentiment being shared is sadness that Tupac’s mother, Afeni Shakur, who died in 2016 aged 69, did not live to see someone convicted over her son’s death.

Nearly 30 years later, hip-hop finally has a conviction — but for one of music’s most debated murders, the questions may not disappear quite so easily.