Saturday, 24 December 2022 – A jury in Los Angeles found Tory Lanez guilty on all three charges related to the July 2020 shooting of fellow rapper Megan Thee Stallion in the Hollywood Hills.
Lanez had pleaded not guilty to assault with a semiautomatic firearm, carrying a loaded unregistered firearm in a vehicle, and discharge of a firearm with gross negligence, according to prosecutors.
The jury convicted him on all three counts.
Megan accused Lanez of shooting her in the foot after she exited a vehicle they had been riding in following an argument.
In her testimony during the trial, Megan said an argument broke out in the car between her, Lanez, and her former friend and assistant, Kelsey Harris, Billboard Magazine reports. The artist testified Lanez wanted her to come clean with Harris about the fact that the two of them had been intimate. But Billboard reports Megan was uncomfortable doing so because she knew Harris had a crush on the Canadian singer and rapper.
Megan said she had exited the car when Lanez shot her.
“I started walking away and I hear Tory yell, ‘Dance, b***h,” she tearfully testified, according to Billboard. “I froze. I just felt shock. I felt hurt. I looked down at my feet and I see all of this blood.”
Megan “showed incredible courage and vulnerability” during her testimony “despite repeated and grotesque attacks,” LA County DA George Gascón said in a statement to CNN following the verdict.
“You faced unjust and despicable scrutiny that no woman should ever face and you have been an inspiration to others across LA County and the nation,” he said, in reference to Megan.
“Women, especially Black women, are afraid to report crimes like assault and sexual violence because they are too often not believed. This trial, for the second time this month, highlighted the numerous ways that our society must do better for women,” Gascón added, referring to Harvey Weinstein being found guilty of three out of seven charges on Monday.
He also thanked the jurors for “their time and thoughtful deliberation.”
Lanez did not take the stand in his defense during the nine-day trial.
The jury, comprised of five men and seven women, began deliberating on Thursday and a verdict was reached on Friday afternoon.
Lanez was taken out of the courtroom by bailiffs in handcuffs after the verdict was read, according to CNN affiliate KCBS.
The Canadian rapper faces a maximum sentence of 22 years in prison and possible deportation back to his native Canada.
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