UPDATE
Aug 8, 2023 6:49 PM CDT
Canadian rapper Tory Lanez was sentenced to 10 years in prison Tuesday for three felonies connected to the 2020 shooting of fellow hip-hop star Megan Thee Stallion. Prosecutors had sought a 13-year sentence while lawyers for the 31-year-old Lanez had sought probation, arguing in a memo last week that "childhood trauma," including the death of his mother when he was 11, played a role in the crime, the Washington Post reports. In a statement read in court by prosecutors Monday, Megan, who had bullet fragments removed from her feet, said, "Slowly but surely, I'm healing and coming back, but I will never be the same," per the AP.
Dec 24, 2022 9:00 AM CST
In a courtroom that turned chaotic after a trial that seethed with tension, a Los Angeles jury on Friday found rapper Tory Lanez guilty of three felonies in the 2020 shooting of hip-hop star Megan Thee Stallion. The attack left her wounded with bullet fragments in her feet, and Lanez's conviction could send him to prison for more than 20 years, per the AP. Lanez, who was put in handcuffs and led to jail while wearing a powder pink coat with matching pants, showed no visible reaction as the verdict was read. Moments later, however, after the jury was escorted out, his father, Sonstar Peterson, leaped up and shouted, "This wicked system stands judged before God almighty!" as deputies closed in on him. Peterson then pointed to the two prosecutors and yelled, "You two are evil, wicked people! You know exactly what you did!"
With considerable effort, deputies wrestled him from the courtroom, where he shouted in the hallway. The jury of seven women and five men deliberated since Thursday before convicting the 30-year-old Canadian rapper, whose legal name is Daystar Peterson, of assault with a semi-automatic firearm, having a loaded, unregistered firearm in a vehicle, and discharging a firearm with gross negligence. Jurors also agreed that there were aggravating factors in the attack, meaning Lanez could face up to 22 years in prison and deportation when he's sentenced on Jan 25. Megan Thee Stallion, whose legal name is Megan Pete, testified during the trial that Lanez fired a handgun at the back of her feet and shouted for her to dance as she walked away from an SUV in which they'd been riding in the Hollywood Hills in the summer of 2020.
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She said the two had gotten into a dispute that became especially heated when she started insulting his music. She needed surgery to remove bullet fragments from her feet. After the verdict, her lawyer, Alex Spiro, said, "The jury got it right" and noted he was "thankful there is justice for Meg." Lanez's lawyer, George Mgdesyan, said they were "shocked by the verdict." "There was not sufficient evidence to convict Mr. Peterson," Mgdesyan said in a statement, adding his team will consider an appeal. The shooting of Pete, who won a Grammy for best new artist in 2021, set off a storm of cultural issues and arguments that peaked during the trial, including the reluctance of Black victims to speak to police, the protection of Black women, gender politics in hip-hop, and online toxicity.
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