The charges against him were prompted by his own descriptions in recent years about orchestrating the deadly attack, prosecutors said.
Image: Tupac Shakur in 1993 Pic: Michael Ferguson/MediaPunch/IPx
The judge said prosecutors are not seeking the death penalty, but Davis could be jailed for life if convicted.
Attorney Ross Goodman, who represented Davis until he lost a legal bid that barred him from hiring a private lawyer, previously said prosecutors lack witnesses and key evidence, including a gun or vehicle, for the murder.
Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson declined to respond to Mr Goodman’s criticism of the evidence, saying that a jury will weigh the results of the police investigation.
The suspect will appear in court again on Tuesday for the trial to be scheduled.
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Image: Duane Davis Pic: Las Vegas Police Department via AP
Davis, originally from Compton, California, was arrested on 29 September outside a home in a Las Vegas suburb.
He remains in custody without bail.
The indictment alleges Davis obtained and provided a gun to someone in the back seat of a Cadillac before the car-to-car gunfire killed Shakur and wounded rap music mogul Marion “Suge” Knight at an intersection just off the Las Vegas Strip.
Knight, now 58, is in prison in California, serving a 28-year sentence for the death of a Compton businessman in 2015.
Image: Court-released image of Tupac and Knight in the car the pair were shot in
Shakur died a week after the shooting, aged 25. The identity of his murderer remains one of hip-hop music’s most enduring mysteries.
Prosecutors allege his killing in Las Vegas came out of competition between East Coast members of a Bloods gang sect and West Coast groups of a Crips sect, including Davis, for dominance in a musical genre dubbed “gangsta rap”.
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4:52
What happened to rapper Tupac Shakur?
The grand jury was told the shooting was retaliation for an earlier fight at a Las Vegas casino involving Shakur and Davis’ nephew, Orlando “Baby Lane” Anderson.
Prosecutors said Davis implicated himself in the killing in multiple interviews and a 2019 tell-all memoir that described his life leading a Crips sect in Compton.
Davis has said he obtained a .40-calibre handgun and handed it to Anderson, a member of Davis’ gang, in the back seat of a Cadillac, though he didn’t identify Anderson as the shooter.
Anderson, then 22, denied involvement in Shakur’s killing and died two years later in a separate shooting in Compton. The other back seat passenger and the driver of the Cadillac are also dead.
Shakur is largely considered one of the most influential and versatile rappers of all time. He had five number one albums, was nominated for six Grammy Awards and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2017.
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The entire East Wing of the White House will be demolished “within days” – much more bulldozing than initially expected for Donald Trump’s new ballroom construction project.
Two Trump administration officials told Sky News’ US partner NBC that the demolition is a significant expansion of the initial plans announced this summer.
“It won’t interfere with the current building,” Mr Trump had said on 31 July. “It’ll be near it, but not touching it, and pays total respect to the existing building, which I’m the biggest fan of.”
Image: Rubble is piled higher and higher as demolition continues on the East Wing. Pic: AP
But a White House official told NBC News the “entirety” of the East Wing would eventually be “modernised and rebuilt”.
“The scope and the size of the ballroom project have always been subject to vary as the process develops,” the official added.
The East Wing was built at the beginning of the last century and was last modified in 1942.
Image: Trump shows off an artist’s impressions of his new ballroom. Pic:AP
Construction on the ballroom – which is expected to hold up to 900 people when finished – began this week.
The National Trust for Historic Preservation, a non-profit agency created by Congress to help preserve historic buildings, warned administration officials in a letter on Tuesday that the planned ballroom “will overwhelm the White House itself”.
“We respectfully urge the administration and the National Park Service (stewards of the White House) to pause demolition until plans for the proposed ballroom go through the legally required public review processes,” Carol Quillen, the trust’s chief executive, said in a statement.
Image: Windows of the complex could be seen being torn down. Pic: Reuters
‘Fake news’
The White House called the uproar “manufactured outrage” by “unhinged leftists and their fake news allies” in a statement.
Last week, Mr Trump said the total price would be about $250m (£187m), which would be paid for by himself and private donors will pay for. However, on Wednesday, he said the ballroom’s price is “about $300m (£225m)”.
The 90,000 sq ft ballroom will dwarf the White House itself – and would be able to accommodate almost five times more guests than the East Room, the largest current space in the mansion.
Mr Trump says the ballroom won’t cost US taxpayers at all. Instead, “donors” would pay for it.
Comcast, the parent company of Sky News, was included on a list of top donors released last week – but it is unclear how much it or others have contributed.
A former world chess champion is being investigated over his public attacks on US grandmaster Daniel Naroditsky, who died suddenly this week aged 29.
Russian player Vladimir Kramnik is facing disciplinary proceedings over repeated accusations against Mr Naroditsky.
He was found dead at his home earlier in North Carolina, and the cause has not been made public.
Image: Vladimir Kramnik. Pic: AP
Mr Naroditsky’s supporters claim he had been “bullied relentlessly online” by Mr Kramnik, with some calling for him to be banned from the game.
Mr Kramnik has accused a number of players of cheating in online games – and first voiced “concerns” about Mr Naroditsky’s play last year, leading to an ongoing feud between the pair.
The 50-year-old routinely posted online about his younger rival, calling for an investigation into his play and at times appearing to threaten legal action.
In an October 2024 interview, Mr Naroditsky characterised Mr Kramnik’s efforts as “a sustained, evil and absolutely unhinged attempt to destroy my life”.
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Now, following the announcement of Mr Naroditsky’s death on Monday, the international chess federation (FIDE) has referred Mr Kramnik’s behaviour to its ethics and disciplinary commission.
Image: Naroditsky was a popular chess streamer on YouTube and Twitch. Pic: AP
FIDE president Arkady Dvorkovich said in a statement: “I, along with the FIDE management board, will formally refer all relevant public statements made by GM (grandmaster) Vladimir Kramnik – both before and after the tragic death of GM Daniel Naroditsky – to the FIDE Ethics and Disciplinary Commission for independent consideration.”
Mr Kramnik has denied wrongdoing, and claims he has also been bullied by members of the chess community – as well as receiving death threats.
He told Reuters: “What public statement after the death of Daniel was incorrect? … I have not bullied Daniel Naroditsky, nor ever made personal insults towards him.”
But prominent chess players have condemned Mr Kramnik’s conduct – with former world champion Magnus Carlsen describing his treatment of Mr Naroditsky as “horrible”.
Meanwhile, Indian grandmaster Nihal Sarin said the retired player “needs to pay for what he’s doing”.
Mr Naroditsky was one of America’s most recognisable chess figures and a former world youth champion.
At just 14 years old, he had written and published a book on the game – and in later years, educated followers through livestreams on Twitch and YouTube.
Mr Naroditsky denied cheating and appeared visibly distressed in his final Twitch broadcast last weekend, where he referred to the toll the controversy had taken on him, according to the now-deleted video.