{"id":2423,"date":"2022-12-23T21:52:36","date_gmt":"2022-12-24T02:52:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gynesisradio.com\/tpsquare\/2022\/12\/23\/tory-lanez-found-guilty-in-shooting-of-megan-thee-stallion\/"},"modified":"2022-12-23T21:52:36","modified_gmt":"2022-12-24T02:52:36","slug":"tory-lanez-found-guilty-in-shooting-of-megan-thee-stallion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gynesisradio.com\/tpsquare\/2022\/12\/23\/tory-lanez-found-guilty-in-shooting-of-megan-thee-stallion\/","title":{"rendered":"Tory Lanez Found Guilty in Shooting of Megan Thee Stallion"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Los Angeles jury convicted Tory Lanez on all three counts Friday, and then pandemonium erupted in the courtroom<\/p>

\"\"\/
Megan Thee Stallion and Tory Lanez<\/em> NOAM GALAI\/GETTY IMAGES; ROY ROCHLIN\/GETTY IMAGES<\/figcaption><\/figure>

RAPPER TORY LANEZ<\/a> was found guilty Friday of shooting<\/a> music superstar Megan Thee Stallion<\/a> in both feet during an alcohol-fueled curbside confrontation in the predawn hours of July 12, 2020.<\/p>

After seven hours of deliberations, a Los Angeles jury convicted the \u201cLuv\u201d singer on all three counts, finding that he assaulted Megan with a semi-automatic firearm, causing great bodily injury, discharged the weapon with gross negligence and possessed the concealed, unregistered weapon inside his SUV.<\/p>

Lanez, whose legal name is Daystar Peterson, is facing up to 22 years and eight months in prison at his sentencing set for Jan. 27. He\u2019s also facing subsequent deportation since he\u2019s a citizen of Canada.<\/p>

\u201cThe jury got it right. I am thankful there is justice for Meg,\u201d said Megan\u2019s attorney Alex Spiro.<\/p>

\u201cI want to start by highlighting the bravery of Megan,\u201d District Attorney George Gasc\u00f3n added. \u201cYou showed incredible courage and vulnerability with your testimony despite repeated and grotesque attacks that you did not deserve. You faced unjust and despicable scrutiny that no woman should ever face and you have been an inspiration to others across LA County and the nation.\u201d<\/p>

The verdict followed a nine-day trial during which Megan told jurors she was trying to escape a shouting match inside Peterson\u2019s Cadillac Escalade when she heard the rapper say \u201cDance, bitch!\u201d and turned to see him pointing a 9mm semi-automatic pistol at her.<\/p>

\u201cI\u2019m in shock. I\u2019m scared. I hear a gun going off. I couldn\u2019t believe he was shooting at me,\u201d she testified in the packed courtroom. \u201cHe was holding the gun, pointing it at me.\u201d<\/p>

The Grammy winner, 27, said she dropped to the ground and crawled to a nearby driveway. \u201cI looked down at my feet, and I see all the blood,\u201d she said. \u201cNow everybody\u2019s screaming. He looked shocked.\u201d<\/p>

Pandemonium erupted in the courtroom Friday shortly before Peterson was led away in handcuffs. His father, Sonstar Peterson, screamed, \u201cThis wicked system\u201d after jumping up from the front row where the rapper\u2019s young son also was seated. \u201cYou two, you are wicked, you are evil,\u201d he shouted, pointing at the prosecutors before he was forced out of the courtroom.<\/p>

\u201cWe are shocked by the verdict. There was not sufficient evidence to convict Mr. Peterson. We believe this case was not proven beyond a reasonable doubt. We will be exploring all options including an appeal,\u201d offered Peterson\u2019s defense lawyer George Mgdesyan.<\/p>

\"\"\/
Megan Thee Stallion<\/a> makes her way to the courthouse to testify in the trial of rapper Tory Lanez for allegedly shooting her on Dec. 13, 2022, in Los Angeles, CA.<\/em> JASON ARMOND \/ LOS ANGELES TIMES VIA GETTY IMAGES<\/figcaption><\/figure>

Over more than three hours of excruciating testimony last week, Megan described her \u201cterrified\u201d reaction to the attack<\/a> and the fear and confusion that followed.<\/p>

The \u201cWAP\u201d singer said she became complicit in a coverup when she initially told investigators she was bleeding profusely because she stepped on glass. She said Peterson had apologized and begged her to keep quiet as sirens approached.<\/p>

\u201cHe\u2019s saying, \u2018Please don\u2019t say anything. I\u2019ll give y\u2019all a million dollars. I can\u2019t go to jail. I already got caught with a gun before,\u2019\u201d she testified.<\/p>

During closing arguments Wednesday<\/a> and Thursday, Mgdesyan branded Megan a \u201cliar,\u201d telling jurors they should conclude she fabricated the attempted $1 million bribe allegation because she said Peterson also told her he was on probation, which wasn\u2019t the case.  <\/p>

Mgdesyan further argued that his client had gunshot residue on his hands because he was trying to wrestle the gun away from the actual shooter, whom he identified as Megan\u2019s now-estranged best friend Kelsey Harris.<\/p>

\u201cWhether or not he\u2019s on probation in 2020 doesn\u2019t matter. What matters is that he told<\/em> Megan he was on probation \u2013 because he was manipulating her,\u201d Deputy District Attorney Kathy Ta said in her final rebuttal before the jury started deliberating. \u201cHe tries to appeal to her sympathy. \u2018I have a gun charge, I\u2019m on probation, please don\u2019t say anything.\u2019 It\u2019s a pattern of manipulation to get the witnesses to keep a lid on everything.\u201d<\/p>

The two-week trial included head-spinning testimony from Harris, who was present in the Escalade the morning of the shooting and who gave an 80-minute recorded statement to prosecutors<\/a> in September in which she vividly recalled Peterson firing five shots, leaving Megan wounded on the ground.<\/p>

Once she was in the courthouse Dec. 14 under a subpoena from prosecutors, Harris invoked her 5th Amendment right against self-incrimination and asked for blanket immunity. Prosecutors agreed to give her \u201cuse immunity\u201d instead, meaning her sworn testimony couldn\u2019t be used against her in a future proceeding, but she could still be charged with something based on other evidence.<\/p>

On the witness stand, Harris disavowed key aspects of her September statement<\/a>, claiming she didn\u2019t see Peterson open fire and was operating under \u201cassumptions\u201d when she sent three lines of text to Megan\u2019s bodyguard five minutes after the shooting that read: \u201cHelp \/ Tory shot meg \/ 911.\u201d<\/p>

While Harris refused to implicate Peterson, she also said it was \u201cridiculous\u201d for Peterson\u2019s defense to claim she was the shooter. She confirmed that after she, Megan and Peterson left Jenner\u2019s pool party with Peterson\u2019s driver, Jauquan Smith, the group was arguing in the SUV because Peterson revealed he had a prior sexual relationship with Megan after previously being intimate with Harris.<\/p>

Harris said \u201ca lot of name-calling\u201d broke out, with everyone \u201ctaking jabs at each other.\u201d But she was adamant her estrangement from Megan after the shooting was based on her belief no one was defending her amid online accusations she was the shooter.<\/p>

\nhttps:\/\/youtube.com\/watch?v=AtjzVI5bFao%3Ffeature%3Doembed\n<\/div><\/figure>

In her own testimony, Megan said she was rushed into surgery with general anesthesia at a Los Angeles hospital during the height of COVID restrictions. When she woke up with stitches in her feet, she couldn\u2019t walk.<\/p>

She said Peterson sent her an obvious apology that read: \u201cMeg, I know u prolly never gone to talk to me again, but I genuinely want u to know I\u2019m sorry from the bottom of my heart. And i was just too drunk. Nonetheless, shit should have never happened, and I can\u2019t change what did. I just feel horrible. Cuz I genuinely just got too drunk.\u201d<\/p>

While on the witness stand, Megan publicly admitted for the first time that she had been intimate with Lanez in the past. She defended her decision to keep that a secret during media interviews, saying the non-exclusive relationship left her feeling \u201cembarrassed,\u201d and ultimately, she considered it irrelevant to the violence that landed her in the hospital.<\/p>

She told the jury that naming Peterson as her assailant came with a steep price.<\/p>

\u201cIt feels like every man that\u2019s in a position of power in the music industry, even people who are not even rappers, they never cared about what my side of the story was. They immediately took the side of this man and have been giving me hell for the last going on three years,\u201d Megan testified.<\/p>

\u201cNot a day that goes by where somebody is not calling me a liar or is not shaming me for being a grown woman and having sex,\u201d she testified, saying the \u201cwhole story\u201d turned into who she was having sex with.<\/p>

\u201cI don\u2019t understand why that matters,\u201d she said of the prior sexual relationship with Peterson. She was adamant he was the triggerman, not her former friend Harris. \u201cTory came out and told so many different lies, about me not being shot, about him not being the shooter, and making this all about a sex scandal.\u201d<\/p>

Megan said she now deals with a constant barrage of threats and harassment online. She said it left her feeling like a \u201csick bird\u201d that other members of her industry sought to avoid.<\/p>

\u201cBecause I was shot, I\u2019ve been turned into some kind of villain, and he\u2019s the victim. This has messed up my whole life,\u201d she said, adding that she often gets \u201cdepressed\u201d about the way she\u2019s \u201cbeing shamed\u201d online.<\/p>

At her lowest, she thought, \u201cI wish he would have just shot and killed me (rather than) have to go through this torture,\u201d Megan told the jury.<\/p>

In her closing argument, Ta said it didn\u2019t make sense that Megan would frame Peterson if Harris pulled the trigger.<\/p>

\u201cHe is a fellow rapper in the industry. He has the support of the boy\u2019s club. It would have been easier for her to say, \u2018My crazy assistant did this to me.\u2019 It is much harder for her to come out against Tory,\u201d Ta argued. \u201cShe had to think about it because she was concerned about what it would cost her, and it cost her a lot.\u201d<\/p>

Ta said the case was \u201cnot about anyone\u2019s sex life\u201d and urged jurors to look at the evidence and sworn testimony. She said it was Peterson\u2019s \u201cbruised ego\u201d that led to the shooting. \u201c(Megan) disrespected his rapping. She\u2019s insulting him as a rapper, and that pissed him off. He had a massive ego and he could not handle being disrespected. And how dare she have the audacity to walk away from him. So he reasserted his dominance. He was going to show her.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cWomen, especially Black women, are afraid to report crimes like assault and sexual violence because they are too often not believed,\u201d said District Attorney Gasc\u00f3n. \u201cThis trial, for the second time this month (after the Harvey Weinstein conviction), highlighted the numerous ways that our society must do better for women.\u201d<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Los Angeles jury convicted Tory Lanez on all three counts Friday, and then pandemonium erupted in the courtroom RAPPER TORY LANEZ was found guilty Friday of shooting music superstar Megan Thee Stallion in both feet during an alcohol-fueled curbside confrontation in the predawn hours of July 12, 2020. After seven hours of deliberations, a Los Angeles jury convicted the \u201cLuv\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2424,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2423","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","category-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gynesisradio.com\/tpsquare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2423","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gynesisradio.com\/tpsquare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gynesisradio.com\/tpsquare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gynesisradio.com\/tpsquare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gynesisradio.com\/tpsquare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2423"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.gynesisradio.com\/tpsquare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2423\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gynesisradio.com\/tpsquare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2424"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gynesisradio.com\/tpsquare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2423"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gynesisradio.com\/tpsquare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2423"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gynesisradio.com\/tpsquare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2423"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}