Rapper Tory Lanez is scheduled to be sentenced Tuesday in Los Angeles for shooting his ex-lover, fellow hip-hop star Megan Thee Stallion.
Prosecutors are asking LA Superior Court Judge David Herriford to jail the 31-year-old singer for at least 13 years, while his lawyers argued on Monday that instead of jail time he should be given probation and sent to rehab for alcohol addiction and therapy for ‘childhood’. trauma’.
During the first day of his sentencing hearing, Lanez’s defense team trotted out several character witnesses who spoke of his philanthropic endeavors by working for and funding various charities and leading a prison prayer group.
But conspicuously missing from the courtroom was his victim, Megan Thee Stallion, 28, who said in a letter to the court that she “just can’t be in the same room as Tory.”
The sentencing for rapper Tory Lanez, 30, in connection with the shooting of Megan Thee Stallion at a Hollywood Hills party in July 2020 is due on Tuesday. He is pictured with his son outside the Los Angeles Superior Courthouse in December 2022
Megan Thee Stallion had three bullet fragments surgically removed from her foot. She will be photographed in court for Lanez’s trial in December
Megan – currently pregnant – wrote that she had no “peace” since Lanez shot her in the feet during a drunken brawl in July 2020, continuing: “I have been tortured and terrorized by the defendant. He made a mockery of my torment.
“He treated my trauma like a joke and I could have died that day. He uses his childhood trauma to protect himself from guilt.”
After the shooting, she said, “she ended up in a dark and lonely place where I thought my life was worthless.
Stressing that there should be “zero tolerance” for Lanez’s “kind of torture,” she added, “I beg this court to finally hold the defendant responsible.”
Lanez – real name Daystar Peterson – faces up to 22 years in prison for the three gun crimes a jury convicted him of last December.
But prosecutors have demanded 13 years. His sentence could also include the performer’s deportation to his native Canada when his time behind bars in the US ends.
At Monday’s hearing, Assistant District Attorney Alex Bott asked Judge Herriford to consider several “aggravating factors” when determining his sentence.
“He never showed an ounce of remorse for the shooting,” said Bott, who added that Lanez’s 12 million social media followers “turned their vitriol” on Megan after he suggested in posts that she had lied about being had been shot.
Another “aggravating factor,” he said, was Lanez “terrorizing” Megan when he showed up at her concert in Miami awaiting trial in defiance of a protective order barring him from anywhere near her.
Bott even accused Lanez of “weaping social media” against himself and his fellow prosecutor, DDA Kathy Ta by posting on Instagram that the two “hidden personal evidence” in their case against him.
“That painted a target on our backs,” he added.
The rapper, real name Daystar Peterson, is pictured with Meg Thee Stallion, real name Megan Pete, in 2020. She testified against him at his trial in December
Meanwhile, the Lanez defense team, Jose Baez, Matthew Barthoma and Ed Welbourn, urged the judge to consider “extenuating circumstances” — such as the musician’s troubled childhood and alcohol abuse — when determining his sentence.
The lawyers claimed in a written application that “Mr. Peterson’s childhood trauma and mental illness, alcohol use disorder compromised his ability to control and regulate his emotions and behaviors and that alcohol use disorder played a significant role in the alleged transgressions.”
Among the character witnesses the defense called on Monday was Lanez father-pastor Sonstar Peterson, who also gave tearful testimony, telling the court that Lanez was traumatized by his mother’s sudden death when he was just 11 and that he sought solace in music .
Peterson Senior also apologized to Judge Herriford for his loud outburst in court last December when the jury found his son guilty.
Raina Chassagne – mother of Lanez’s six-year-old son Kai – has known him since sixth grade and she told the court how, after his mother died, he was sometimes homeless as a teenager.
She described Lanez as a great dad who “puts his kid first, even before music” and said she feared for Kai’s stability if his dad gets a long sentence.
Sonstar Peterson, father of Tory Lanez, gave a tearful testimony as he gave a character witness for his son
Lanez’s music manager, Elis Pachecl, told the court his arrest and sentencing “has impacted his brand immensely — this case has decimated him.”
The defense also called clinical psychologist Dr. Stephanie Herring who testified that she believed Lanez suffered from post-traumatic stress (PST) and an anxiety disorder and said that instead of jail time he would be a “good candidate” for mental health and alcohol abuse treatment while on probation.
Judge Herrikford told the court Monday that he had received 76 messages of support from Lanez’s relatives, friends, colleagues and others, many of whom credited his acts of kindness and generosity.
One of those letters came from Australian rapper Iggy Azalea who urged the judge to impose a sentence “that is transformative, not life-destroying.”
Baez and Barthoma’s argument that childhood trauma and alcohol use were to blame for Lanez’s crimes is the second strategy the legal duo has used to try to keep their client out of jail.
The first came last May when they filed a request to give Lanez a new trial.
In their motion, Baez and Barthoma — who did not represent Lanez at his trial — called his convictions a “miscarriage of justice,” accused prosecutors of unfairly “painting Lanez as a career criminal with guns,” and charged their client’s attorney. George Mgdesyan, because he is ‘inaffective’.
Judge Herriford disagreed on all counts and rejected the lawyers’ offer for a new trial.
Megan took to Instagram with a photo of her foot injury after the shooting
Megan Thee Stallion, she was photographed in August 2022, told jurors at the Lanez trial that he shot at her feet after yelling “dance b***h”
Lanez’s 10-day trial ended on December 23 when, after deliberating for a day and a half, the jury of seven women and five men unanimously convicted Lanez of three felonies: assault with a semi-automatic firearm, shooting with a firearm with gross negligence and carrying a concealed firearm in a vehicle.
He pleaded not guilty to all three charges.
In tearful testimony at trial, Megan told the jury that on July 12, 2020, she and Lanez — with whom she had had a sexual relationship — went to a pool party at Kylie Jenner’s home and in his SUV in the Hollywood Hills with her best friend and assistant Kelsey Harris when an alcohol-fueled argument broke out.
Megan – real name Megan Pete – asked the driver to stop the car and she got out – then she said Lanez shouted “Dance b-ch” and fired a gun at her five times, injuring her feet so badly that she had to be operated on.
She testified in court that Lanez offered her and Harris a million dollars to keep quiet about the shooting and asked them not to report him because he was already “on probation.”
Megan also said that Lanez later apologized to her, saying he was drunk at the time of the shooting.