Three decades after the drive-by shooting that killed Tupac Shakur and changed hip-hop forever, a former gang leader is finally standing trial in Las Vegas.

Duane "Keffe D" Davis, 63, faces one count of murder with a deadly weapon with the intent to promote, further, or assist a criminal gang. Jury selection began Monday, with opening arguments scheduled for August 17. If convicted, he faces life in prison without parole.

The case hinges on Davis' own words — a 2019 memoir titled Compton Street Legend in which he claimed to have supplied the gun used in the shooting and tossed it into the back seat of the white Cadillac that pulled alongside Tupac's BMW. Davis has since argued the book was co-authored and partially fictionalized.

Prosecutors are not claiming Davis pulled the trigger. Instead, they aim to prove he orchestrated the attack in retaliation for a casino brawl hours earlier involving his nephew, Orlando Anderson — long suspected as the shooter but never charged before his own death in 1998.

The trial could feature celebrity witnesses including Suge Knight, the Death Row Records co-founder who was in the car with Tupac when the shots rang out on September 7, 1996. Over 200 names appear on the prosecution's witness list.

Tupac, who released hip-hop's first double album All Eyez on Me months before his death, sold over 5 million copies and remains one of the most influential rappers of all time.

Sources: BBC News, PBS NewsHour