Tory Lanez was found guilty of felony assault on Tuesday for shooting and injuring hip-hop icon Megan Thee Stallion in July 2020, and he was given a sentence of 10 years in prison without the possibility of parole.
The hip-hop artist, whose real name is Megan Pete, was shot and injured by Lanez, 31, on December 23, 2022. Lanez’s sentencing was originally scheduled for January, but it was repeatedly postponed after he hired new lawyers and asked for a new trial. In May, the request for a new trial was rejected.
The sentence was “extreme,” according to Lanez’s attorney Jose Baez, who told reporters outside the courtroom on Tuesday afternoon. The rapper’s defense team intends to file an appeal.
Baez stated, “Tory did not receive the sentence that we had undoubtedly hoped for.” “I believe the sentence imposed was incredibly harsh,”
He is not being used as an example; rather, he is a human being. “This is another example of someone being punished for their celebrity status and someone being utilized as a — to send an example,” Baez continued. “I find it to be very unfortunate, and we intend to appeal to it,” the speaker said.
Lanez is “down” and “sad,” according to Baez, as he considers the time he will miss with his son while he is serving his sentence.
In December, a jury found 31-year-old Lanez, who had pleaded not guilty, guilty of three felonies: assault with a semi-automatic weapon, transportation of a loaded, unregistered firearm, and grossly negligent discharge of a firearm.
Before the judge delivered his ruling, Lanez spoke in front of the court while dressed in an orange jumpsuit. He expressed regret for his behavior and claimed full accountability for the 2020 shooting.
He said, “If I could change it, I would, but I can’t.” He continued, “I take full responsibility for everything I did that night. “I genuinely just want to try to be a better person,”
After the sentence was given, Lanez acted surprised but kept quiet. As she was led from the courtroom, his son’s mother started crying.
A member of Lanez’s legal team named Matthew Barhoma stated that appeals of the sentence and conviction are anticipated. When the team appeals the verdict, it will also submit a bail application.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge David Herriford stated in imposing his sentence that it was “difficult to reconcile” the devoted father and devout philanthropist many described with the person who shot Megan five times.
Herriford remarked that “sometimes good people do bad things.” “Actions have consequences, and in this case, nobody is a winner.”
Alex Bott, a deputy district attorney, claimed Lanez intimidated and harassed Megan and called her a liar.
After the sentence was handed down, Bott remarked, “Not only did the defendant commit the heinous act of shooting her; he also subjected her to two and a half years of hell.”
Additionally, Lanez might have been deported to Canada.
Regarding whether Lanez will be deported, one of his attorneys, Jose Baez, said, “We’re nowhere near that yet.”
His attorneys argued for probation and suggested that he be released from custody to enter a residential substance abuse program in an effort to obtain a lighter sentence. They asserted that Lanez suffers from alcohol abuse disorder, anxiety, and unexpected trauma post-traumatic stress disorder that came from the death of his mother when he was 11 years old.
The claims, which were not brought up during the trial, prompted the prosecution to declare themselves “skeptical.”
In her testimony, Megan claimed that Lanez yelled at her to “dance” and fired a gun at her feet as she exited the SUV they were traveling in with two other people. She testified in court that when the police asked her why her feet were bleeding, she at first claimed that she had cut them on glass. She needed surgery after hospital staff discovered bullet fragments in her foot.
She admitted to lying to police at first because she was afraid of getting into a more dangerous situation in an interview with Gayle King for “CBS Mornings” in April, just before the trial.
You think I’m going to call the police and say that we have a gun in the car because we’re Black? She spoke. You want me to inform the authorities that we have a gun in the car so they can kill us all, right?
Megan also spoke about the ongoing physical pain she experiences in her song “Shots Fired,” which she wrote about the shooting and addressed in an Instagram Live video in which she identified Lanez as the shooter.
For a while, I was unable to walk, she admitted. “My nerves are still damaged. My left foot’s side feels numb to me. Even though the backs of my feet are always sore, I keep going.
She testified in court that Lanez had offered her $1 million in exchange for her silence.
Lanez did not testify at the trial despite devoting an entire album to disputing her account of the events. His attorneys argued that Megan’s testimony that Lanez asked her not to contact the police because he was on parole was untrue and disputed the accuracy of the DNA evidence used by the prosecution to identify him as the shooter.
Additionally, Megan and her ex-friend Kelsey Nicole Harris, who was also in the car at the time of the incident, got into a fight about Lanez and other men, according to his legal team, who described the trial as a “case about jealousy.”
