Pathologist Details Tupac Shakur's Fatal Wounds at Davis Trial
A forensic pathologist testified about the bullet wounds that killed the rapper as autopsy photos prompted some family members to leave the courtroom.
Some members of Tupac Shakur's family stepped out of a Las Vegas courtroom Tuesday before prosecutors displayed photos from his 1996 autopsy at the trial of Duane "Keffe D" Davis, who is accused of orchestrating the rapper's fatal drive-by shooting.
Dr. Lisa Gavin, a forensic pathologist and medical examiner for Clark County, Nevada, testified as an early witness on the second day of the trial. Jurors saw a photo of a green body bag followed by an image of Shakur's body. Relatives who remained in the courtroom looked away, and one woman got up and left.
Gavin said a bullet entered Shakur's chest near his armpit and traveled through his chest, including through a lung, causing it to collapse and bleed. Doctors later removed the damaged lung in an attempt to save his life. Additional bullets damaged his intestines and other parts of his body, she said. Shakur died at a hospital six days after the shooting on September 7, 1996. Gavin was not present at the original autopsy but was called as an expert witness because the medical examiner who conducted it has since died.
In opening statements Monday, Deputy District Attorney Binu Palal told jurors that Davis "did not pull the trigger" but planned the shooting in retaliation for an attack on his nephew, Orlando "Baby Lane" Anderson, hours earlier at the MGM Grand. Palal said Davis later implicated himself in a 2008 interview with federal investigators, a 2009 interview with Las Vegas police, and his 2019 memoir, "Compton Street Legend."
Defense attorney Michael Sanft called the prosecution's narrative "fiction," telling jurors Davis was never previously charged because investigators knew he was "full of crap." A retired Las Vegas police officer testified Monday that Shakur, while being loaded into an ambulance, was asked who shot him and responded, "No, we'll take care of it."
Davis, 63, has pleaded not guilty and faces life in prison if convicted of murder with a deadly weapon to further a criminal gang. Sanft said outside court that the three decades since the shooting would work in his client's favor because of faded memories.
This article was produced with the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI), in accordance with our editorial policy.
