Rapper Tory Lanez was sentenced to 10 years in prison Tuesday in Los Angeles after he was convicted last year of shooting Grammy winner Megan Thee Stallion in the feet in 2020, the Associated Press reported.Â
Lanez, whose legal name is Daystar Peterson, was convicted in December of assault with a semiautomatic firearm and two other felonies.
During the trial, Megan, whose legal name is Megan Pete, testified that Lanez shot at the back of her feet and told her to dance when she was walking away from an SUV that was carrying them in 2020. The rappers had been at a party at Kylie Jenner’s house.
In an interview last year with “CBS Mornings” co-host Gayle King, Megan said she wanted to get out of the vehicle because Lanez was having a heated argument with one of her friends. She said after she left the vehicle, shots rang out.
“He is standing up over the window shooting,” Megan told King. “And I didn’t even want to move. I didn’t want to move too quick. Like, cause I’m like, oh my God, if I take the wrong step, I don’t know if he’s going to shoot something that’s, like, super important. I don’t know if he could shoot me and kill me.”
Lanez was also convicted of having a loaded, unregistered firearm in a vehicle and discharging a firearm with gross negligence.
Prosecutors were seeking a 13-year sentence from Superior Court Judge David Herriford. Lanez’s attorneys wanted him to be sentenced to probation.
His lawyers tried to get a new trial earlier this year. They argued that Lanez’s attorney in the original trial wasn’t given enough time to prepare, that Lanez didn’t ask Megan to not speak to the police as she testified and that authorities didn’t follow industry standards when using DNA evidence to tie Lanez to the shooting. Herriford rejected their arguments.
During Monday’s hearing, Lanez’s father, Sonstar Peterson, apologized for saying Lanez was convicted in a “wicked system” following the jury’s guilty verdict. Peterson also said music became his son’s outlet after his mother died from a rare blood disorder when he was 11. In a letter, rapper Iggy Azalea urged the judge to impose a sentence that was “transformative, not life-destroying.”
The Associated Press contributed reporting.
