UPDATED, 3:34 PM: A judge today sentenced Tory Lanez to 10 years in prison after his conviction for shooting fellow Grammy-winning rapper Megan Thee Stallion in 2020.
Lanez, real name Daystar Peterson, was convicted on December 23 of one felony count each of assault with a semiautomatic firearm, having a loaded unregistered firearm in a vehicle and discharging a firearm with gross negligence.
Judge David Herriford of Los Angeles Superior Court handed down the sentence after a hearing that stretched over two days and saw prosecutors ask for a prison term of 13 years, while defense attorneys produced an array of witnesses in hopes of their client receiving probation.
“He not only shot me. He made a mockery of my trauma,” Megan said in a statement read by Deputy District Attorney Kathy Ta.
The incident happened as Megan Thee Stallion was leaving a party at Kylie Jenner’s house. Lanez was accused of shooting her in the foot. The “Savage” rapper had testified in December that he told her to “dance, bitch,” and then shot her in the feet, and she wrote in her victim-impact statement that she can’t bring herself to be in the same room again with Lanez.
Read details of the case below.
PREVIOUSLY, December 23: A Los Angeles jury has found Grammy-winning rapper Tory Lanez guilty of all charges in the 2020 shooting of Megan Thee Stallion outside of a house party.
The incident happened as Megan Thee Stallion was leaving a party at Kylie Jenner’s house. Lanez was accused of shooting her in the foot.
Chaos erupted in the courtroom when the verdict was announced. A man identified as Lanez’s father yelled at the judge, while spectators wept and yelled “appeal.” Deputies had to quell a melee in the corridor outside the court room.
Lanez, wearing a pink coat, pink pants and white turtleneck, sat in stunned silence next to his defense team. It was later revealed that he will appeal the verdict, but for now, he was led from the courtroom in handcuffs. His sentencing is set for Jan. 27.
Lanez, whose real name is Daystar Peterson, was charged with assault with a semiautomatic firearm and carrying a loaded, unregistered firearm in a vehicle. Prosecutors later added a third count of discharging a firearm with gross negligence. He now faces a maximum sentence of 22 years in prison and may be deported to his home country of Canada after serving his sentence.
The trial saw Lanez enter a plea of not guilty to shooting her. His public outreach included dedicating an entire album to rebutting Megan Thee Stallion’s version of events.
The case originated in July 2020. Police stopped an SUV going four-deep in the Hollywood Hills. Megan Thee Stallion, whose real name is Megan Jovon Ruth Pete, testified in the trial that she initially told police that she had cut her feet on glass when asked about why she was bleeding.
She was taken by ambulance to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, where doctors found bullet fragments in her foot, which required surgery to remove.
“I couldn’t walk for a while,” she testified. “I still have nerve damage. I can’t really feel the side of my left foot. The back of my feet are always sore, but I just push through it.”
Although initially hesitant to snitch, Megan Thee Stallion eventually outed Lanez as the shooter on her Instagram feed. She later took aim at him in the song “Shots Fired.”
In her testimony, Megan Thee Stallion said Lanez offered her $1 million to keep quiet about the shooting.
Lanez did not testify in his defense.
Other celebrities have spoken up about the case online, including Megan Thee Stallion’s “WAP” collaborator, Cardi B. She called her a “superstar” in an Instagram Live.
“Why would somebody lie about getting shot?” Cardi said. “Why?”
Erik Pedersen and City News Service contributed to this report.
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