Tory Lanez Found Guilty on All Charges in Shooting of Megan Thee Stallion
After a two-week trial, a jury found the rapper guilty of assault with a semiautomatic firearm, gross negligence, and carrying an unregistered firearm.
JusticePolitics

Tory Lanez (identified in court by his birth name, Daystar Peterson) was found guilty in the shooting of rapper Megan Thee Stallion (Megan Pete) after one day of jury deliberation. Peterson pleaded not guilty to all three charges, which include one count each of assault with a semiautomatic firearm, discharging a firearm with gross negligence, and carrying a loaded, unregistered firearm in a vehicle. Peterson faces a maximum sentence of 22 years in prison. His sentencing hearing will take place on January 27, 2023.
Per reporters on the scene, the courtroom was plunged into pandemonium upon the verdict as Peterson’s father and step-mother “screamed” about injustice.
Throughout the two-week proceedings, prosecution and defense painted starkly different portraits of the shooting that occurred on July 12, 2020. “This was about jealousy…two woman that love a man and found out,” George Mgdesyan, Peterson’s defense attorney, told the court. Mgdesyan strongly suggested that Harris was the shooter, though there was little evidence to support that theory. He also argued that Megan lied about the shooting for publicity reasons, telling the jury that it would be a “better story” to implicate Peterson rather than her former friend and assistant.
“This is a case about a guy who shot a girl, then apologized for it,” Deputy District Attorney Alexander Bott countered in closing statements. Bott also read directly from Megan’s emotional testimony, affirming that she has no reason to lie, and naming Peterson as the shooter has caused her immense distress. “If you believe Megan, that’s enough,” he said.
The jury heard testimony from nearly a dozen witnesses including la enforcement, a Cedars Sinai surgeon, and an eyewitness, but the most memorable people to take the stand were Megan Thee Stallion and former friend and assistant, Kelsey Harris.
On the first day of the trial, Megan told the court she’s suffered suicidal ideations since the shooting, and likened the fallout of naming Lanez as the shooter to “torture.”
“I can’t even be happy,” Megan told the court. “I can’t hold conversations with people for a long time. I don’t feel like I want to be on this earth. I wish he would have just shot and killed me, if I knew I would have to go through this torture.”
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