A sentencing hearing is set to continue for a second day Tuesday for rapper Tory Lanez — one day after hip-hop star Megan Thee Stallion wrote in a statement read in court that she has not had a day of peace since being shot in the feet by Lanez in 2020.
Megan Thee Stallion’s words were one element of a lengthy hearing in Superior Court on Monday, with her statement urging Judge David Herriford to hold Lanez accountable for the crime, while Lanez’s defense team pressed on with an effort to spare the rapper from a potential state prison sentence.
After hearing from a series of witnesses called on Lanez’s behalf and the beginning of attorneys’ arguments about aggravating and mitigating factors, Herriford noted, “We’re not going to finish today (Monday).”
The judge eventually ordered both sides to return to the downtown Los Angeles courtroom Tuesday morning, when the sentencing hearing is expected to continue.
Prosecutors are asking the judge to sentence the 31-year-old Canadian star, whose real name is Daystar Peterson, to 13 years in state prison, while defense attorneys are requesting probation for their client.
Lanez was convicted last Dec. 23 of one felony count each of assault with a semiautomatic firearm, having a loaded unregistered firearm in a vehicle and discharging a firearm with gross negligence.
In a statement read in court by Deputy District Attorney Kathy Ta, Megan Thee Stallion wrote that she has not experienced “a single day of peace” since she was shot July 12, 2020.
“He not only shot me. He made a mockery of my trauma,” the entertainer said.
Megan Thee Stallion — who testified last December that Lanez told her to “dance, bitch,” and then shot her in the feet — wrote in her victim impact statement that she can’t bring herself to be in the same room again with Lanez.
Meanwhile, more than a half-dozen witnesses, including Peterson’s father, Sonstar, and the mother of Peterson’s 6-year-old son, were called to testify about his devastation over the death of his own mother when he was 11 and his subsequent charitable efforts throughout the country even before he became well-known.
“I don’t think anybody ever gets over that,” Sonstar Peterson said of his youngest son’s reaction to his mother’s untimely death. But he noted that music became an outlet for his son.
He told the judge that he wanted to “personally apologize” for his own outburst in court after his son’s conviction, saying it was an “overwhelming time.”
The mother of Peterson’s son called him “the most supportive father” who knows how to put his son first. She urged the judge to “please be as lenient as possible,” calling the rapper the rock of the family.
A chaplain from the Los Angeles County jail described Lanez as standing out in jail by leading a prayer call, working with other inmates and having a positive attitude.
The judge said he had received more than 70 letters on Lanez’s behalf, including one from musician Iggy Azalea, whom he said had requested a sentence that was “transformational, not life-destroying,” along with one from Lanez’ young son.
Herriford said he found that the prosecution had proven two aggravating factors involving the use of weapon and a particularly vulnerable victim, but had not proven a third aggravating factor — that the crime involved a high degree of cruelty, viciousness or callousness.
Deputy District Attorney Alexander Bott told the judge that Megan Thee Stallion has physical and emotional scarring that will be with her for the rest of her life, saying the shooting ensued after nothing more than a verbal argument about “artistry.”
“He’s never shown an ounce of remorse for the shooting,” Bott said.
One of Lanez’ attorneys, Jose Baez, countered that Peterson “admittedly was highly intoxicated” and didn’t even remember afterward what the topic of the argument was. He said Lanez would benefit from a live-in substance abuse treatment program if the judge sentences Lanez to probation.
“He’s worth saving,” the defense lawyer told the judge, noting at one point that Lanez steadfastly proclaims his “innocence.”
During a contentious hearing in May, the judge rejected the defense’s bid for a new trial. Baez — who became one of the rapper’s attorneys after the trial — called Lanez’s defense during the trial a “jumbled, bungled mess,” and said Lanez’s trial attorney, George Mgdesyan, did not have enough time to prepare for trial and ultimately “failed” his client.
`Tuesday I take a stance as an innocent Black man, wrongfully convicted of a crime I did not commit,” Lanez said in an Instagram post in April that was addressed to Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón.
In an audio recording that accompanied the Instagram post, Lanez alleged that he “was completely robbed and deprived of a fair trial” and that he watched prosecutors “unlawfully misuse their authority to hide and suppress any and all exculpatory evidence that exonerates me and furthers my innocence.”
“… So, Mr. Gascón, I come to you Tuesday as a wrongfully convicted Black man, not asking for sympathy, nor compassion, but for you to simply do what is fair and right in the laws of California, and most importantly in the eyes of God,” he said in the recording, in which he cited the steps that Gascón has taken “in regards to fighting for the justice of Black and Brown minorities.”
Lanez has remained behind bars since he was ordered to be taken into custody shortly after the jury’s verdict was read.
Jurors deliberated about seven hours before finding him guilty of the three felony counts.
During the trial, Megan Thee Stallion testified that Lanez shot her during an argument following a get-together at Kylie Jenner’s home. She said she had no doubt that Lanez fired the shots, and that he later offered her $1 million not to say anything.
Under cross-examination, the Grammy Award-winning singer — whose real name is Megan Pete — said she initially had no intention of talking about what had happened and “didn’t want to be a snitch,” but felt she had to “defend my name” when she saw that people were “making things up” and suggesting that she hadn’t been shot.
In an essay published on Elle magazine’s website, Megan Thee Stallion wrote, “As I reflect on the past three years, I view myself as a survivor, because I have truly survived the unimaginable.”
“Not only did I survive being shot by someone I trusted and considered a close friend, but I overcame the public humiliation of having my name and reputation dragged through the mud by that individual for the entire world to see,” she wrote.
In a sentencing memorandum, the prosecutors wrote that Lanez “brazenly fired five rounds, emptying his gun, at a vulnerable victim” and that the shooting left Pete “bleeding, injured and traumatized.”
“And since that night, the defendant has waged a campaign to humiliate and retraumatize the victim through his actions and words,” the prosecutors wrote in their court filing. “His online posts for nearly three years have retraumatized the victim. His online reach is worldwide (millions of followers plus casual observers) and the defendant’s statements embolden his followers so that they too have been complicit in retraumatizing the victim.”
Lanez’ new attorneys, Baez and Ed Welbourn, countered that their client “will be able to resume his charitable activities and provide much-needed support for underserved communities in Los Angeles and beyond,” and called for him to be placed on probation and to be allowed to enter a residential treatment program, according to a sentencing memorandum obtained by journalist Meghann Cuniff of the website legalaffairsandtrials.com.
Lanez “suffered from a mental condition, alcohol-use disorder, at the time of the offense,” according to the defense’s sentencing memorandum, in which his attorneys wrote that “the evidence of guilt is questionable at best and by no means overwhelming.”