Canadian rapper Tory Lanez was sentenced on Tuesday to 10 years in prison, more than seven months after he was convicted of shooting fellow musical artist Megan Thee Stallion during an argument in 2020.
Judge David Herriford handed down the sentence to the 30-year-old rapper, whose legal name is Daystar Peterson, during a hearing in Los Angeles Superior Court that had been pushed back by delays.
The sensational trial this month both revealed new details and created more confusion about what happened. (Los Angeles Times)
The shooting
Prosecutors allege the shooting happened shortly after both artists left a party in July 2020 at the Hollywood Hills home of Kylie Jenner, a member of the Kardashian clan. The pair was riding in an SUV with a woman named Kelsey Harris — a longtime friend of Pete’s from whom she is now estranged — and Peterson’s bodyguard.
Prosecutors said the two artists got into a heated dispute when Pete derided Peterson’s rap skills. At some point, Pete demanded to be let out of the car, at which time Peterson allegedly repeatedly fired at her, authorities said.
The gunshots prompted a slew of 911 calls, and Los Angeles police officers eventually pulled over the SUV near Hollywood Boulevard and found Pete with a foot injury. Initially, Pete told police that she was hurt by stepping on broken glass at Jenner’s party.
Weeks later, however, she accused Peterson in an Instagram Live video of shooting her. She has said she hesitated to report the incident to Los Angeles police out of fear police would respond with deadly force as they had in the recent killings of George Floyd in Minneapolis and Breonna Taylor in Louisville, Ky.
Peterson was first arrested on suspicion of possessing an unregistered firearm. From the get-go, his defense team has tried to knock down Pete’s explanation of her failure to report the shooting right away. If she had been concerned about the police response, his lawyers have said, she could have told paramedics or doctors the story of how she was injured while they removed bullet fragments from her feet.
