A jury found Duane “Keffe D” Davis guilty of orchestrating the 1996 killing of rap icon Tupac Shakur, finally bringing a measure of resolution to a case that had gripped hip-hop fans and lingered in the public imagination for decades.

Davis, aged 63, was found guilty on Monday of one count of murder involving a deadly weapon, a conviction that could result in a life sentence.

Following a trial that spanned several weeks in Las Vegas, the jury reached its verdict in under three hours of deliberation.

Upon the reading of the verdict, Shakur’s sister, Sekyiwa “Set” Shakur, broke down in tears and embraced the prosecutors, while Davis’ son concealed his face with a single hand.

In his closing arguments on Monday morning, Chief Deputy District Attorney Binu Palal told the jury that Davis had obtained a gun and then "went hunting" for Shakur and Death Row Records co-founder Marion "Suge" Knight, after the two men had beaten up Davis's nephew earlier that night.

“He is responsible for the murder of Tupac Shakur,” Palal said.

“Tell him you hear him. Find him guilty.”

Prosecutors argued that although his account had shifted over time, Davis consistently maintained that he was inside a white Cadillac from which the shots were fired.

They further contended that, despite not being the trigger man, evidence indicated he had orchestrated the shooting, given his status as a powerful gang leader whose younger associates in the vehicle, including his nephew, were inclined to follow his orders.

Defense attorney Michael Sanft asked the jurors whether any evidence indicated that Davis had ever exercised authority or control prior to or following the shooting.

The panel of 16 jurors, four of whom served as alternates, listened to testimony delivered by 24 prosecution witnesses and three defense witnesses over a nine-day period.

The prosecution stated that the state would drop a gang enhancement charge due to logistical issues with witnesses.

Prosecutors declined to comment after the verdict, and members of Shakur's family said they would wait until sentencing, which is set for October.

The trial brought to a head a decades-old case that has long fascinated both hip-hop fans and true crime experts.

Shakur, widely regarded as one of the most influential rappers of all time, was in Las Vegas on Sept. 7, 1996, and stopped at a red light when a white Cadillac pulled up beside him, and shots were fired.

He died six days later from his wounds.

Knight was also wounded but survived.

For years, no one had been held accountable for the rapper's death until Davis began making public statements, claiming he was in the Cadillac and had passed the gun to others in the backseat, framing the shooting as retaliation for the earlier assault on his nephew.

Davis is the only survivor among the four men prosecutors say were in the Cadillac.

Witnesses described the bitter rivalry between the Los Angeles gang factions Mob Piru and Davis’ Southside Compton Crips in the time leading up to Shakur’s death, and how these gangs became connected to Knight’s Death Row Records and Sean “Diddy” Combs’ Bad Boy Records.

Sanft, Davis’ attorney, argued that no physical evidence linked his client to the shooting.

He contended that the book Davis co-authored and his public statements were dramatized bravado intended to generate profit, rather than to convey the truth.

Throughout the trial, Sanft systematically dismantled the prosecutors' narrative.

He argued that investigators had not substantiated the claims against his client, and he repeatedly highlighted the lack of physical evidence, such as phone records, that would have shown Davis was the shot caller.

“There is nothing in this case that establishes that this man was present in Las Vegas on September 7, 1996,” Sanft asserted during his closing argument.

In rebuttal, prosecutor Marc DiGiacomo drew attention to a scrapbook kept by Davis that contained articles concerning Shakur.

“This individual is meticulously documenting his own murder, for heaven’s sake,” DiGiacomo told the jury.

Palal held up Davis’ 2019 memoir, “Compton Street Legend,” and played an interview in which Davis encouraged people to buy it to get the “real truth.”

Although the book contains a disclaimer saying some facts were changed, prosecutors argued the central account did not.

During his closing argument, Sanft also referred to his client's memoir, and as he read an excerpt aloud, he uttered the N-word, prompting those in the overflow courtroom to recoil and shake their heads.

In multiple interviews, Davis stated that he had passed the firearm to the back seat, yet in others, as well as in his book, he remained evasive about who had actually pulled the trigger.

While insisting that Davis' words alone sufficed for his conviction, prosecutors argued that a gang rivalry helped explain the shooting's circumstances.

Witnesses described the bitter rivalry between the Los Angeles gang factions in the time before Shakur's death, and how these groups became connected to two competing record labels — Mob Piru with Knight's Death Row Records and the South Side Compton Crips with Sean "Diddy" Combs' Bad Boy Records.

The shooting death of the Notorious B.I.G., which occurred six months after Shakur's, was frequently brought up during the trial, with law enforcement witnesses testifying that Davis had briefly been a suspect in that killing before being ruled out.

That case, which has also fascinated hip-hop fans, remains unsolved.