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Tory Lanez guilty of murdering Megan Thee Stallion – Rolling Stone

December 24, 2022

Rapper Tory Lanez was found guilty on Friday of shooting music superstar Megan Thee Stallion in both feet during an alcohol-fueled curbside confrontation in the pre-dawn hours of July 12, 2020.

After seven hours of deliberation, a Los Angeles jury convicted the “Luv” singer on all three counts, finding he assaulted Megan with a semi-automatic firearm, causing grievous bodily harm, discharged the firearm with gross negligence and possessed the concealed and unregistered weapon. gun inside his SUV.

Lanez, whose legal name is Daystar Peterson, faces up to 22 years and eight months in prison on his January 27 sentence. He also risks subsequent deportation since he is a Canadian citizen.

“The jury understood. I am grateful there is justice for Meg,” Megan’s attorney Alex Spiro said.

“I want to start by recognizing Megan’s bravery,” added District Attorney George Gascón. “You have shown incredible courage and vulnerability with your testimony despite repeated and grotesque attacks that you did not deserve. You faced unfair and despicable scrutiny that no woman should ever face and you were an inspiration to others across LA County and the country.

The verdict follows a nine-day trial in which Megan told jurors she was trying to escape a shouting match inside Peterson’s Cadillac Escalade when she heard the rapper say “Dance, bitch !” and turned to see him pointing a 9mm semi-automatic pistol at her.

“I’m in shock. I’m scared. I hear a gunshot. I couldn’t believe he was shooting at me,” she testified in the crowded courtroom. was holding the gun and pointing it at me.”

The Grammy winner, 27, said she fell to the ground and crawled to a nearby alley. “I looked at my feet and I see all the blood,” she said. “Now everyone is screaming. He looked shocked.

Peterson had no visible reaction when the first guilty verdict was read, but then lowered his head. Pandemonium then erupted when his father, Sonstar Peterson, shouted, “This nasty system” after jumping from the front row where the rapper’s young son was also sitting. “You two are mean, you are mean,” he shouted, pointing at prosecutors before being kicked out of the courtroom.

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Peterson, 30, was handcuffed and taken into immediate custody.

“We are shocked by the verdict. There was insufficient evidence to convict Mr. Peterson. We believe this case has not been proven beyond a reasonable doubt. We will explore all options, including an appeal,” Peterson’s defense attorney George Mgdesyan offered.

Megan Thee Stallion heads to the courthouse to testify in the trial of rapper Tory Lanez for allegedly shooting her on December 13, 2022 in Los Angeles, California.

Jason Armond/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

In more than three hours of harrowing testimony last week, Megan described her ‘terrified’ reaction to the attack and the fear and confusion that followed.

The “WAP” singer said she became an accomplice to a cover-up when she first told investigators she was bleeding profusely from stepping on glass. She said Peterson apologized and begged her to be quiet as the sirens approached.

“He says, ‘Please don’t say anything. I’ll give you a million dollars. I can’t go to jail. I’ve been caught with a gun before,” she testified.

During closing arguments on Wednesday and Thursday, Mgdesyan called Megan a “liar,” telling jurors they should find she fabricated the attempted million-dollar bribe allegation because She said Peterson also told her he was on probation, which he wasn’t.

Mgdesyan further argued that his client had bullet residue on his hands because he was trying to pull the gun away from the real shooter, whom he identified as Megan’s best friend Kelsey Harris. The jury did not believe.

“Whether or not he’s on probation in 2020 doesn’t matter. What matters is that he Told Megan, he was on probation — because he was manipulating her,” Assistant District Attorney Kathy Ta said in her final rebuttal before jurors began their deliberations Thursday morning. “He tries to appeal to his sympathy. “I have a gun charge, I’m on probation, please don’t say anything.” It’s a model of manipulation to get witnesses to keep tabs on everything.

The two-week trial included stunning testimony from Harris, who was present in the Escalade the morning of the shooting and gave an 80-minute taped statement to prosecutors in September in which she vividly recalled Peterson firing five shots of fire, leaving Megan injured. on the ground.

Once she was in the courthouse on Dec. 14 under a subpoena from prosecutors, Harris invoked her 5th Amendment right against self-incrimination and requested blanket immunity. Prosecutors agreed to give her “use immunity” instead, meaning her sworn testimony could not be used against her in future proceedings, but she could still be charged with something on the basis of other evidence.

On the witness stand, Harris disavowed key aspects of her September statement, saying she did not see Peterson open fire and was operating on ‘assumptions’ when she sent three lines of text to Megan’s bodyguard five minutes after the shooting who read, “Help/Tory shot mega/911.”

While Harris declined to implicate Peterson in her live testimony, she said it was “ridiculous” for her defense to claim she was the shooter. She said it was true that she, Megan and Peterson were walking away from a pool party at Kylie Jenner’s house when Peterson sparked “a lot of name calling” by revealing he had been intimate with Megan after previously had sex with Harris. But she was adamant her subsequent estrangement from Megan was not based on a romantic rivalry. She said it stemmed from her belief that no one was standing up for her amid the online accusations she had leveled at Megan.

In her own testimony, Megan said she was rushed into surgery under general anesthesia at a Los Angeles hospital during the height of COVID restrictions. When she woke up with stitches in her feet, she couldn’t walk.

While still in the hospital, Peterson sent her an obvious apology that read, “Meg, I know you’ve probably never spoken to me again, but I really want you to know that I am sorry from the bottom of my heart. And I was just too drunk. Nevertheless, shit should never have happened, and I can’t change what happened. I just feel awful. ‘Cause I got way too drunk.

Megan said she struggled to deal with the aftermath of her attack and defended her decision to keep her previous intimate relationship with Peterson a secret before the trial. She told jurors the non-exclusive relationship left her “embarrassed” and ultimately saw it as unrelated to the violence that landed her in the hospital.

She told the jury that naming Peterson as her attacker came at a high price.

“I feel like all the men who are in positions of power in the music industry, even people who aren’t even rappers, have never cared about my side of the story. They immediately sided with this man and have been giving me hell for three years,” Megan testified.

“Not a day goes by that someone doesn’t call me a liar or shame me for being a grown woman and having sex,” she testified, saying “the whole story morphed into who she was having sex with.

“I don’t understand why it matters,” she said of the prior sexual relationship with Peterson. She was adamant it was the trigger, not her old friend Harris. “Tory came out and told so many different lies, about me not being shot, about him not being the shooter and about it being a sex scandal.”

Megan said she now faces a constant barrage of online threats and harassment. She said it made her feel like a “sick bird” that others in her industry sought to avoid.

“Because I was shot, I was turned into some kind of villain, and he’s the victim. It ruined my whole life,” she said, adding that she was often ” depressed” by how she “was shamed” online. She also spoke in depth about this trauma earlier this year in her rolling stone cover story.

At rock bottom, she thought, “I wish he had shot me and killed me (instead of) having to go through this torture,” Megan told the jury.

In her closing argument, Ta said it didn’t make sense for Megan to charge Peterson if Harris pulled the trigger.

“He’s a fellow rapper in the industry. He has the support of the boys’ club. It would have been easier for her to say, ‘My crazy assistant did this to me. It’s a lot harder for her to come out against Tory,” Ta explained. “She had to think about it because she was worried about what it would cost her, and it was costing her dearly.”

Ta said the case was “not about anyone’s sex life” and urged jurors to review evidence and sworn testimony. She said it was Peterson’s “bruised ego” that led to the shooting. “(Megan) disrespected her rapping. She insults him as a rapper, and that pissed him off. He had a huge ego and he couldn’t stand being disrespected. And how dare she have the audacity to walk away from him. He therefore reasserted his dominance. He was going to show her.

“Women, especially black women, are afraid to report crimes like sexual assault and violence because they are too often not believed,” District Attorney Gascón said. “This trial, for the second time this month (after Harvey Weinstein’s conviction), has highlighted the many ways our society must do better for women.”