Tory Lanez guilty in shooting of Megan Thee Stallion
Daystar Peterson, a Canadian rapper who performs as Tory Lanez, was convicted Friday of assault and weapons offenses for shooting rap star Megan Thee Stallion after an alcohol-fueled party in 2020.
Peterson faces more than 20 years in prison for the gunshots jurors concluded he fired at the feet of Stallion, whose real name is Megan Pete, in a fit of rage.
The case came to highlight the misogyny in the male-dominated hip-hop industry, which Pete upended with blistering songs that often depict women wielding power over men. She endured a deluge of criticism for reporting Peterson to police.
The jury reached its decision on its first full day of deliberations following a two-week trial.
Tory Lanez, a Canadian rapper, was found guilty of shooting Megan Thee Stallion outside a Hollywood Hills mansion in 2020. Here’s everything you need to know about the trial.
Pete took the stand last week, testifying that Peterson shot her after the pair left a party at the Hollywood Hills home of Kylie Jenner, a member of the Kardashian clan, and began fighting.
The altercation began, Pete said, as she, her friend Kelsey Harris and Peterson were being driven in Peterson’s SUV, and he revealed to Harris that the two rappers had become romantically involved. Harris had previously been involved with Peterson and became angry, Pete said.
Pete told jurors she demanded to be let out of the vehicle on Nichols Canyon Road. As she walked away, she claimed, Peterson shouted, “Dance, b—!” before firing a volley of gunshots at her, although no other witnesses said they heard Peterson yell. Pete was struck several times in the feet and had to undergo surgery to remove bullet fragments.
“The jury got it right,” said Alex Spiro, Pete’s attorney. “I am thankful there is justice for Meg.”
George Mgdesyan, Peterson’s attorney, said he and his client were shocked at the sweeping verdict. He maintained that prosecutors had many holes in their case and lacked evidence to prove that his client was the shooter.
“Right now, everyone’s a little devastated,” Mgdesyan said. “We thought there was more than reasonable doubt here ... and we were hoping the truth came out.”
As the verdict was read, Peterson, dressed in a white turtleneck and a powder-pink suit, sat slumped in his chair with his chin jutting upward, expressionless. He was disappointed with the outcome, said Mgdesyan — who spoke with his client at a courthouse holding cell following the proceedings — and plans to appeal.
In addition to Pete, Peterson and Harris, Peterson’s bodyguard Jaquan Smith was in the SUV when the gunfire erupted. Smith did not testify, leaving Harris as the witness who had the best view of the incident. But prosecutors have heard two wildly different stories from Harris, Pete’s onetime confidante who fell out with the hit-maker after the shooting.
Kelsey Harris, Megan Thee Stallion’s estranged best friend, told prosecutors in September that Tory Lanez shot the “Savage” rapper in 2020. On the stand at Lanez’s trial, she’s struggled to remember much of anything.
In court last week, Harris refused to testify until she was granted immunity by prosecutors. On the stand, she deflected questions and asked to invoke her 5th Amendment right against self-incrimination.
Repeatedly chalking up her fuzzy memory to a night of heavy drinking at Jenner’s party, Harris wouldn’t say who shot Pete or answer questions about claims that Peterson offered both women $1 million not to report the incident to police — even though she had sent a text message the night of the altercation that read, “Tory shot Meg.”
The day after Harris left the stand, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge David Herriford allowed prosecutors to play the entirety of a recorded interview Harris gave to them in September. On the tape, she clearly identifies Peterson as the gunman and gives a play-by-play account of the night of the shooting, telling the story with minimal prompting from prosecutors.
“You start hearing gunshots. ... I look up maybe at the second or third gunshot. ... You see Tory ... he’s leaning over, the door’s open,” Harris said on the tape. “He’s shooting over the top of the door, the right front passenger side.”
Tory Lanez, a Canadian rapper, was found guilty of shooting Megan Thee Stallion outside a Hollywood Hills mansion in 2020. Here’s everything you need to know about the trial.
After Herriford set sentencing for Jan. 27 and ended the proceedings, Peterson’s supporters sat silent and solemn in the courtroom.
The silence broke when Peterson’s father stood from his seat directly behind his son and yelled, “This wicked system!” He pointed toward prosecutors, yelling, “You are wicked! You know exactly what you did!”
Sheriff’s deputies escorted Peterson’s father and stepmother from the courtroom as they both called out, “Wickedness!”
Peterson’s young child stood nearby, visibly shaken by the uproar.
“We love you,” exclaimed one woman who was in tears. “God got you,” a man called out.
Deputies placed Peterson in handcuffs and led him away.
Peterson has repeatedly denied all wrongdoing and pleaded innocent to charges of assault, illegal weapons possession and negligent discharge of a firearm.
Mgdesyan tried to paint Harris as the shooter, arguing that she snapped after learning her best friend was seeing Peterson. He emphasized repeatedly that a forensic analysis of the gun did not find Peterson’s DNA on the magazine; all tests on the firearm were inconclusive.
More than two years after he allegedly shot Megan Thee Stallion in the foot, Canadian rapper Tory Lanez’s trial on assault charges in Los Angeles has begun.
An LAPD criminalist testified that there were as many as four people’s DNA on both the weapon and magazine, but they could not prove that Peterson had touched the gun. Both Harris and Peterson tested positive for gunshot residue, but this can occur due to proximity to a gun that is fired.
Mgdesyan also sought to attack the reliability of the police investigation, asking why officers did not collect a DNA sample from Harris at the time of the incident. None of the police witnesses provided an answer.
On Tuesday, Mgdesyan called a witness he said could identify Harris as the shooter. But the man, a resident of Nichols Canyon Road named Sean Kelly, said he “never saw a gun” that night.
During a rambling, confused hour on the stand, Kelly said he believed he “saw the girl shoot first” but later said he saw no firearm, only muzzle flashes that came from Peterson. An audio recording of the incident that prosecutors played in court depicted three rapid gunshots, a pause, then two more.
Judge David Herriford set the Canadian rapper’s bail at $350,000 and determined that Lanez’s social media posts directed at Megan Thee Stallion are a violation of the court’s pretrial protective orders.
Much like Harris’ testimony, there were discrepancies between what Kelly initially told police and Mgdesyan and what he said on the stand. When he first called 911, Kelly made no mention of a female shooter, according to a transcript referenced in court by Deputy Dist. Atty. Alexander Bott, though Mgdesyan later got a police investigator to acknowledge that he never asked Kelly for a description of the shooter. Kelly admitted that he previously told a defense investigator he saw Peterson wrestling a gun away from “a woman” — presumably Harris — but was less clear on that point on the stand Tuesday.
Leading up to the verdict, jurors paid special attention to Kelly’s accounts of the shooting. On Thursday, the first day of deliberations, the jury asked the court to read back Kelly’s full testimony.
Pete, for her part, testified about the fallout from her decision to go to police about the shooting. Peterson released an entire album in 2020 largely dedicated to denying Pete’s account of the shooting and proclaiming his innocence; the lyrics in a recent Drake song cast similar doubt.
As Pete testified, the normally swaggering voice behind “WAP” and “Hot Girl Summer” often wavered, and she opened up about how she has struggled with depression and suicidal thoughts in the wake of the shooting. Had she known the backlash she would receive for reporting Peterson, Pete said, she wouldn’t have come forward.
“This whole story has not been about the shooting. It’s only been about who I been having sex with,” she said. “When people talk about Megan Thee Stallion getting shot, all the headlines are ‘Megan Thee Stallion is on trial,’ and I’m not on trial!”
After the verdict, prominent Black women took to social media to support Pete.
“So many of y’all stood with an abuser only to prove once again that Black women never are granted the grace, and protection that we deserve,” the writer Jemele Hill tweeted.
In a statement, Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. George Gascón praised Pete, telling her she “showed incredible courage and vulnerability with your testimony, despite repeated and grotesque attacks that you did not deserve.”
Drawing a parallel to testimony in the recent Los Angeles rape trial of disgraced film mogul Harvey Weinstein, Gascón continued, “Women, especially Black women, are afraid to report crimes like assault and sexual violence because they are too often not believed. This trial, for the second time this month, highlighted the numerous ways that our society must do better for women.”
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