Rapper Tory Lanez will be sentenced Monday in connection with shooting Megan Thee Stallion outside a Los Angeles party in 2020.
The hearing is set for 10:30 a.m. PST/1:30 p.m. EST.
The sentencing will bring an end to the case that saw a maelstrom of media attention, cast a spotlight on the scrutiny Black women face when reporting abuse and saw the “WAP” rapper subjected to what prosecutors called “repeated and grotesque attacks.”
Megan Thee Stallion accused Lanez, whose legal name is Daystar Peterson, of shooting her in the foot after they left a party at Kylie Jenner’s Hollywood Hills home in 2020.
He had pleaded not guilty and dedicated an entire album to rebutting her version of events.
Lanez was found guilty of three felony charges in December: assault with a semiautomatic firearm, carrying a loaded, unregistered firearm in a vehicle, and discharging a firearm with gross negligence. The charges carry a maximum sentence of 22 years and eight months behind bars and he faces possible deportation to Canada.
The 2020 shooting
Megan Thee Stallion, whose real name is Megan Jovon Ruth Pete, testified at the Los Angeles County trial that Lanez shouted for her to "dance" and fired the gun towards her feet when she walked away from an SUV they were in with two others on July 12, 2020.
She told the court that she initially told police that she had cut her feet on glass when asked why she was bleeding.
She was taken by ambulance to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, where doctors found bullet fragments in her foot that required surgery to remove.
Weeks after the shooting incident in August 2020, the rapper publicly stated on Instagram that Lanez was the shooter. “Yes ... Tory shot me,” she said. “It’s not that I was protecting anybody. I just wasn’t ready to speak.”
She also later took aim at him in the song “Shots Fired.”
“I couldn’t walk for a while,” she testified. “I still have nerve damage. I can’t really feel the side of my left foot. The back of my feet are always sore, but I just push through it.”
She also told the court that Lanez offered her $1 million to keep quiet about the shooting
In an April interview with Gayle King, prior to the trial, she explained she initially lied to police because she feared getting into a more dangerous situation.
“You think I’m about to tell the police that we ... us Black people got a gun in the car?” she asked. “You want me to tell the law that we got a gun in the car so they can shoot all of us up?”
Case unfolds in court, online vitriol explodes
Lanez did not testify at the trial.
His lawyers called Megan Thee Stallion's testimony, that Lanez asked her not to go to police because he was on parole, false. They also argued that DNA evidence prosecutors used to identify him as the likely shooter fell short of industry standards.
His legal team also called the trial a “case about jealousy.’’ They told jurors that Megan Thee Stallion and her former friend Kelsey Nicole Harris, who was also in the car at the time of the incident, had gotten into an argument about Lanez and other men.
The case also sparked a frenzy of online vitriol attacking the female rapper.
Her fans fought back, criticizing the public attention focused on the star’s sexual history. The attacks and insinuations against Megan Thee Stallion were dubbed "misogynoir," meaning specific misogyny against Black women where sexism and racism intersect.
The December verdict hearing saw chaos unfold in court, when Lanez's father leapt up and called prosecutors “evil” and “wicked” after the guilty verdict was read.
Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón praised Megan Thee Stallion for her "bravery" after the verdict, saying, “You showed incredible courage and vulnerability with your testimony despite repeated and grotesque attacks that you did not deserve.”
Lanez’s lawyers filed a motion for a new trial on May 9, which was denied.
Prosecutors asked for a 13-year sentence, noting in a sentencing memorandum that Lanez re—traumatized Megan Thee Stallion with social media posts about the trial, that led his followers to target her. His lawyers said in their sentencing memo that he should be sentenced to probation and released from jail to enter a residential substance abuse program.
