FILE - Rapper Tory Lanez performs at HOT 97 Summer Jam 2018 at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J. Three years have passed since hip-hop superstar Megan Thee Stallion was shot multiple times by rapper Lanez in Los Angeles following a summer pool party at the home of Kylie Jenner. On Monday, Aug. 7, 2023, Lanez is scheduled to be sentenced, following his December conviction on three felony charges. (Photo by Scott Roth/Invision/AP, File)
LOS ANGELES (AP) – Rapper Tory Lanez is expected to be sentenced on Tuesday for shooting Megan Thee Stallion in the feet three years ago, which the star says has left her struggling emotionally ever since.
“Since I was viciously shot by the defendant, I have not experienced a single day of peace,” Megan said in a statement read by Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney Kathy Ta during Monday’s all-day session. “Slowly but surely, I’m healing and coming back, but I will never be the same.”
The hip-hop star, who testified during the trial, said she struggled with whether she would appear to give the statement in person, but said she “simply could not bring myself to be in a room with Tory again.”
She asked that her absence not be taken as a sign of indifference, and urged Judge David Herriford to issue a stiff sentence.
The judge had been expected to sentence Lanez Monday at a hearing that often can take only a couple of hours, but the proceedings turned into a marathon two-day session after Herriford had attorneys for the two sides argue each factor of his potential sentence. The judge also allowed seven witnesses, including Lanez’s father and the mother of his 6-year-old son, to give statements on Lanez’s charitable giving, his childhood trauma, and his loving parenting.
Prosecutors are asking a judge to hand down a 13-year sentence to the 31-year-old Lanez, whose legal name is Daystar Peterson. Lanez was convicted of three felonies: assault with a semiautomatic firearm, having a loaded, unregistered firearm in a vehicle and discharging a firearm with gross negligence.
Lawyers for Lanez said in a sentencing memo that he should get only probation and be released from jail to enter a residential substance abuse program. They plan to appeal his conviction.
Several issues remain to be debated and decided before sentencing, which means Lanez is unlikely to learn his fate until Tuesday afternoon.
Megan testified during the trial that Lanez had fired the gun at the back of her feet and shouted for her to dance as she walked away from an SUV in which they had been riding in summer 2020. The pair had left a party at Kylie Jenner’s Hollywood Hills home.
