Napoleon didn’t think Keefe D would be convicted. The Outlawz member admits he followed the trial closely and figured the jury might let Duane Davis walk, right up until the guilty verdict came down.
Now that a Las Vegas jury has found Davis guilty of orchestrating the 1996 drive-by that killed Tupac Shakur, Napoleon is sitting with mixed feelings.
His first thought went to Pac’s family, who he said probably wanted to see this moment for close to 30 years.
“I have mixed feelings,” Napoleon said. “I was paying attention to the trial, and it seemed like they might let this dude go. For 30 years, it seemed like nobody really cared about solving Pac’s death.”
That frustration runs deep for him. Napoleon, born Mutah Beale, was part of the Outlawz, the crew Tupac built around himself in the mid 90s, and he watched the case go nowhere for decades while theories piled up.
What sank Davis wasn’t forensics or a witness finally talking. It was Davis himself, who spent years giving interviews, writing a memoir, pitching his story to Netflix, and reportedly telling people in jail they’d be rich once a movie deal landed.
“He got himself,” Napoleon said. “He told on himself. He tried to flip it and say it was a book, and I thought they were going to believe the path he was trying to go down, claiming it was all for entertainment.”
The jury didn’t buy the entertainment defense. Davis had publicly described being in the car on the night of September 7, 1996, when Tupac was shot in Las Vegas, and those retellings became the backbone of the case after his arrest in 2023.
The part Napoleon can’t let go of is what Davis said about other people. During the trial, Davis mentioned additional names and claimed he was paid to carry out the hit, but without physical evidence tying anyone else to the shooting, prosecutors had nothing to charge.
I definitely believe it’s more to it,” Napoleon said. “Keefe D himself said things, and I believe what he said. I don’t believe he made these things up as a story.”
He went further, pointing to the way Davis handled himself. “I don’t even think he’s clever enough,” Napoleon said. “When you hear him talk and see how he pretty much talked himself into prison, I don’t think he could come up with these ideas just for entertainment.”
That leaves an odd tension. The same bragging that convicted Davis is what Napoleon sees as proof the story goes deeper, while the courts can only act on what they can prove.
Napoleon has zero sympathy for the man himself. “You brought that on yourself. You was arrogant,” he said. “You was belittling and taking the life of an individual that was loved by so many people.”
Davis, now 63, faces a possible life sentence. Sentencing is reportedly set for October 13 at 10:30 A.M. in Las Vegas, and for people like Napoleon, the question of who else knew what in 1996 is still hanging in the air.
