Torry Lanez Pleads Guilty to Shooting Megan Thee Stallion: Rapper Megan Thee Stallion was assaulted by singer-rapper Tory Lanez, who has been found guilty of the crime. On December 23, a jury in a courthouse in Los Angeles found the Canadian artist guilty of all charges. The allegations result from an argument on July 12, 2020, after the rappers departed a pool party at Kylie Jenner’s Los Angeles home.
Lanez, whose real name is Daystar Peterson, was on trial for three felonies: careless discharge of a handgun, possession of a concealed, unregistered firearm, and assault with a semi-automatic firearm. Around 4 a.m., an argument in a car leaving the party broke out onto the street, and Peterson, 30, was accused of shooting Megan Thee Stallion, real name Megan Pete, twice in the foot as a form of assault.
In a high-profile trial that lasted for the past two weeks, right up until the Christmas holiday weekend, a jury of seven women and five men debated in the Los Angeles Superior Court for two days after hearing arguments from both the prosecution and the defense.
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The jury and members of the public observed heartbreaking testimony from the victim herself, surprising twists in testimony, and varying interpretations of the case’s hard evidence over the last two weeks of witness and expert comments. One of the first names for the prosecution to be called was Megan Pete, who provided her version of the assault and identified Peterson in court as the shooter.
The rapper from Houston also talked about how the assault and the legal proceedings have affected her life and career over the past 2.5 years. Pete discussed being continuously questioned and shunned by some members of the “big boys’ club” of the music business and being mocked, denigrated, and threatened online.
“I find it difficult to have long talks with people. I don’t think I want to stay on this planet. If I had known I would have to endure this agony, I wish he had just shot and murdered me “Pete, 27, addressed the jury while sobbing. Following Pete’s remarks, Kelsey Harris, the prosecution’s primary witness, changed her story, dealing with a setback in their case.
The two rappers rode in the car with Pete’s assistant and former best buddy, Harris. As potential confirmation of Pete’s account of the incident, which identified Peterson as the shooter, Harris’ testimony was eagerly awaited. Additionally, it was anticipated that Harris’ testimony would provide the foundation for the defense to investigate the idea that Harris, not Peterson, was the shooter in this case.
However, Harris asked to utilize her Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination when she took the witness stand on December 14. Harris refused to answer several questions, at times not even acknowledging that she knew Pete had been shot, even after the prosecution gave her use immunity, which prevents information generated from her testimony or other material from being used against her in any criminal case.
Harris constantly claimed, “Her team told me she walked on glass,” and that she “wasn’t aware she was bleeding,” despite it being clear that Pete rested her leg on Harris while they eluded the police and was subsequently photographed in jail with Pete’s blood on her. Harris first denied being bribed by Peterson during the defense’s cross-examination of him by defense counsel George Mgdsesyan, who referred to Harris’s excessive recentness on the witness stand.
Then Mgdsesyan implied that Harris was under duress from the District Attorney’s office. In response, Kelsey’s September 2022 interview with DDA Kathy Ta and Alexander Bott was moved to be admitted into evidence so that the jury could hear her complete account of that evening and establish the absence of coercion. As Harris testified, Peterson offered both ladies $1 million each to be silent about the incident.
When Harris’s taped testimony was replayed, the suspicion of compulsion was moved back to the defendant. (Defense attorney Mgdesyan questioned Harris in open court about whether he had accepted any bribes from Peterson. Harris responded, “No, and I truly would like to make that very plain.”
Although the enigmatic reasons for the significant differences between Harris’ recorded interview and live testimony remained unsolved, Harris showed emotional distress when discussing how her friendship with Pete ended after the incident. Many pieces of the case’s direct evidence, including DNA and gunshot residue (GSR) experts consulted by the prosecution, failed to support the night’s events: GSR had Kelsey Harris and Tory Lanez.
Although Tory’s DNA was not discovered in the gun’s magazine, the findings of his DNA testing on the actual weapon were inconclusive. But one thing was sure: Megan Pete had been shot. The orthopedic surgeon from Cedar Sinai Hospital who helped remove bullet fragments from Megan’s foot testified about carrying out the procedure and acknowledged that there were shards that were too small to be removed and that they are still in the rapper’s heels to this day.
Tory Lanez’s lawyer George Mgdesyan just released a statement:
“We 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.”
— Nancy Dillon (@Nancy__Dillon) December 24, 2022
In a further testimony twist, the defense’s primary witness also somewhat backtracked on a previous remark when it came time to support their claim that Kelsey Harris was the actual attacker. Sean Kelly, a 911 caller who claimed to have witnessed the altercation from his bedroom window, testified that he initially saw “two girls fighting” and that a “muzzle flash” went off closer to one of the women.
However, he also claimed to have seen Peterson shooting wildly and violently at both women while holding his arms outstretched. Kelly told the court, “They were all fighting; they were all struggling continuously.” This trial has been the subject of a divisive debate tainted by the persistent internet circulation of false information because of the prominent people involved and the peculiar circumstances of the incident.
Independent blogs’ erroneous interpretations of the evidence and unsupported claims of an early verdict have overshadowed the case’s facts in favor of sleazy hot views. The hip-hop community has disagreed on Pete’s plausibility as a victim, the normalization of the mistreatment of Black women, and the fabrication of claims against Black males throughout the two years it took for this trial to occur.
People v. Daystar Peterson has been a spotlight for the pervasive misogyny that permeates society. The felony accusations against Peterson carry a maximum sentence of 22 years in jail. The ruling will be subject to appeal by his legal team.
Final Lines
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