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An eyewitness at Tory Lanez’s trial told the court she saw the singer, her driver and Megan Thee Stallion’s assistant, Kelsey Harris, kick and punch the rapper as she lay on the ground with a gunshot wound.
Sean Kelly, whose home in the Hollywood Hills overlooks the site of the July 2020 shooting, took the stand Tuesday, telling jurors he thought the trio “were trying to kill her.”
He told the court that Lanez was yelling “a torrent of abuse” at Megan, using words like “son of a bitch” and the n-word.
He was going crazy. He was really agitated,” added Kelly, whose hour of dramatic testimony as a defense witness was often contradictory, depending on whether it was the prosecution or the defense asking the questions.
Tory Lanez was seen arriving at court in a light blue suit and white turtleneck sweater on Tuesday. A defense witness claimed that he saw the singer beating Megan Thee Stallion (pictured in court last week) after she was shot.
Video footage showed the moments after the July 12, 2020 shooting, with Lanez and Thee Stallion, and a third person lying on the ground as authorities arrive.
He told the court that Lanez “was shooting everywhere, four or five times,” but also said he thought “the girl” (Kelsey Harris) had “fired the first shot.”
Lanez, 30, who wore a light blue suit and white turtleneck sweater Tuesday in downtown Los Angeles criminal court, pleaded not guilty to three felony counts of assaulting Megan with a firearm. semi-automatic, carrying a concealed weapon in a vehicle, and discharging a firearm with gross negligence.
The Canadian musician, whose real name is Daystar Peterson, could face up to 18 years in prison if convicted of all three felonies, plus possible deportation.
In her testimony last week, Megan, 27, told the jury of seven women and five men that she and Lanez had gone to a pool party on July 12, 2020 at the home of Kylie Jenner, who may being called as a defense witness, and they were in their van in the Hollywood Hills with Megan’s assistant and best friend, Kelsey Harris, when an argument broke out.
Megan, whose real name is Megan Pete, asked the driver to stop the car and she got out, which is when she said Lanez yelled “Dance, bitch” and fired a gun at her multiple times, injuring her feet so badly that she needed to surgery.
She also testified that Lanez offered her and Harris a million dollars to keep quiet about the shooting.
The defense witness told the court Tuesday that he first saw Megan and her former assistant Kelsey Harris (right) in a violent fight, before the shooting. He claimed that Harris, Lanez and Lanez’s driver began beating the rapper to the ground.
Megan Thee Stallion shared photos of the injuries she sustained to her foot after Tory Lanez allegedly shot her
Lanez, who is out on $350,000 bail, later apologized to her and said he was drunk at the time of the shooting.
Meanwhile, her defense team has been pushing the theory that it wasn’t Lanez, but Harris, who fired the gun in a fit of jealousy and anger at Megan when she found out the singer had “stabbed her in the back” by sleeping with her. Lanez, whom Kelsey had. a crush
Kelly told jurors Tuesday that he was awakened around 4:30 a.m. by the sound of shouting and loud voices in his driveway.
She got up to investigate, went out onto the balcony of her second-story room, and two girls fought outside a car.
“They pulled their hair and hit each other. It was pretty violent,” he said.
The ‘taller guy’ (Lanez’s driver) got out of the car and walked over to the girls to try to separate them, Kelly told the court.
“Then I heard what I thought were fireworks… I saw a muzzle flash about the same time the smallest gentleman (Lanez, who is 5-foot-3) got out of the car.”
He said the first flash was ‘near the girls’, but when asked by defense lawyer George Mgdesyan: ‘Who had the gun?’ Kelly said: ‘I never saw a gun. I just saw flashes.
Where did you see the flashes coming from? asked the lawyer. ‘The girl (Harris)’, Kelly said.
‘Have you ever heard someone say: ‘Dance bitch’? He asked Kelly, answering ‘No’.
In her testimony last week, Megan, 27, told a jury of seven women and five men that she and Lanez were leaving a pool party on July 12, 2020, at Kylie Jenner’s home when an argument broke out. . The two women appear together during an Instagram Live the night of the shooting.
The rapper, real name Daystar Peterson, could face up to 12 years in prison if convicted. The two photographed in 2020
Mgdesyan asked Kelly several times, “after he saw the woman shoot, he saw the smaller man appear to try to take the gun from her.”
Kelly went on to point out that it was all happening so fast, and in a sarcastic response that drew laughter from the packed courtroom, he said, “It’s not like I’m saying, ‘Excuse me, can I have the gun? It’s my turn.”
Pressed by Mgdesyan, he added that he believed the girl (Harris) “fired the first shot… Then I think he (Lanez) started shooting.”
After the shooting, Kelly said, he saw Megan “crawling and stumbling” in the nearby driveway and “all three (Lanez, Harris and Lanez’s driver) were hitting her.
She was curled up on the floor in a fetal position. They all beat her, punched her and kicked her…. It seemed to me that they were trying to kill her.
When Lanez’s driver said the police were on their way, he continued: ‘They picked her up and it looked like they were going to throw her into the (nearby stream).
They dragged her across the street, put her in the car, and drove off.
Under questioning by Assistant District Attorney Alex Bott, Kelly said, “I saw the muzzle flash as the smaller gentleman (Lanez) got out of the car.”
“He was shooting everywhere, four or five shots.
‘The short guy got out of the car and then shot the girl. She was kicking all the time. She fell in the middle of the road.
Kelly told Bott that after he was shot, he “crawled and curled up in a ball.” And Lanez was yelling a “torrent of abuse” at her, including words like “mother*** and nigga.”
He was going crazy. He was really agitated,” he added.
Later that day, Mgdesyan called Los Angeles Police Department Detective Ryan Stogner, lead detective on the Lanez case, to the witness stand Tuesday to testify about an interview he had with eyewitness Kelly a few days after the shooting. shooting.
‘Did he (Kelly) tell you that he saw my client (Lanez) holding a gun, firing a gun…? ‘No,’ replied Det. Stogner.
When asked by Assistant District Attorney Kathy Ta if Kelly told her she saw a woman shoot or hold a gun, her answer was the same: “No.”
Stogner also interviewed Megan after the shooting and when asked by Ta, “Who did she say shot her?” the detective replied: “Her friend of hers Tory Lanez.”
And when Ta asked Stogner if Megan had also told him that Lanez had offered her $1 million to keep quiet about the incident, he replied, “Yes.”
The prosecution and defense sparred Tuesday over Megan telling the district attorney that Lanez told her he was already “on probation” at the time of the July 2020 shooting.
DDA Ta told the court that Lanez was involved in a criminal case in Florida in 2017 that resulted in him being placed in a ‘diversion’ program, which typically means an offender avoids jail or probation if they complete a less punitive diversion course.
‘That’s not probation,’ objected Mgdesyan, who then asked Detective Stogner: ‘Do you have any evidence that in 2020 my client was on probation? ‘No,’ he replied, also agreeing that he had no evidence that Lanez had ‘ever’ been on probation.
Prosecutors recalled LAPD criminal investigator and DNA expert Randy Zepeda, who testified last week that test results looking for Lanez’s DNA on the gun that shot Megan were “inconclusive,” but the test results on the magazine of the weapon they did not show the DNA of Lanez.
When asked if he would expect there to be less DNA on the gun if it had been cleaned up after the shooting, or if the person handling the gun had recently been in a chlorinated pool (like Lanez, in Kylie Jenner’s pool), Zepeda said yes’.
When Ta asked, ‘Does that mean (Lanez) didn’t fire the gun? ‘No,’ she replied.
Mgdesyan challenged with his own questions: “Is there any evidence that my client’s DNA was on the gun?” he asked. ‘No,’ Zepeda said.
When asked: ‘Do you have any evidence that the weapon was erased?’, he replied again: ‘No.’
At the end of Tuesday’s trial session, DDA Bott complained to Judge Herriford that his opposing defense attorney, Mgdesyan, had acted “aggressively”, calling him an “idiot and a clown” and “muttering ‘obscenities under his breath’.”
Bott asked that Mgdesyan be reprimanded for his behavior, but the judge took no action except to urge both legal teams to be civil to each other.