A judge on Tuesday denied Canadian rapper Tory Lanez’s motion for a new trial following his conviction late last year for the 2020 shooting of Megan Thee Stallion.
The ruling by Los Angeles Superior Court judge David Herriford did not come as a surprise as defence counsel requests to overturn a jury’s verdict are rarely granted.
Lanez’s lawyers, Jose Baez and Matthew Barhoma, argued last month that Herriford “impermissibly chilled” their client’s right to testify in his own defence by ruling that prosecutors could introduce his lyrics and a bloody 2022 music video (for “Cap”) during cross-examination. (A California law barring “creative expression” evidence at trials came into effect nine days after Lanez was convicted.)
They also claimed prosecutors ambushed the defence at trial with a September 2020 Instagram post that appeared to show Lanez admitting that Megan’s then-friend Kelsey Harris was not the one who fired the gun. (Lanez’s defence was that it was Harris who fired – a claim both she and Megan denied.)
Baez and Barhoma said the judge should not have allowed the jury to see the post because the defence did not have time to show who made the comment. Their motion for a new trial included a statement from content creator Joshua Farias, who claims he was managing Lanez’s account at the time.
"The only acceptable remedy for this miscarriage of justice is a new trial,” read the motion, which also alleged that prosecutors unfairly portrayed Lanez as “a gun-wielding career criminal” and drew attention to an AK-47 tattoo on his chest. They claimed his “gangster rapper persona” was used to suggest a “criminal propensity.”
Lanez’s tattoo, the lawyers argued, was an homage to the late rap icon Tupac Shakur.
Lanez, whose real name is Daystar Peterson, was found guilty just before Christmas of assault with a firearm, carrying a loaded and unregistered firearm and discharging a firearm with gross negligence. The Ontario native has been in custody at the Men’s Central Jail in L.A. since the verdict. He could be sentenced to up to 22 years and eight months in prison and deportation to Canada.
Lanez can still appeal the verdict but, last year, the California appellate court overturned only 19 percent of guilty verdicts.
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The rapper was initially arrested for carrying a concealed weapon on July 12, 2020. He was charged on Oct. 8, 2020 with assault with a firearm and carrying a loaded and unregistered firearm. He pleaded not guilty in November 2020.
As the trial got underway, a charge of discharging a firearm with gross negligence was added.
In an essay for Elle last month, Megan called Lanez’s conviction “more than just vindication” after being doubted and taunted.
“It was a victory for every woman who has ever been shamed, dismissed, and blamed for a violent crime committed against them,” she wrote.
Megan recalled that after the shooting, her name and reputation was “dragged through the mud” by Lanez. “For years, my attacker laughed and joked about my trauma,” she wrote. “For years, my attacker peddled false narratives about what happened … For years, my attacker tried to leverage social media to take away my power. Imagine how it feels to be called a liar every day?”
Lanez has released seven studio albums since 2016, including September's Sorry 4 What, and has collected three consecutive JUNO Awards for Rap Recording of the Year. He also earned the JUNO for R&B/Soul Recording of the Year for a collaboration with Jessie Reyez and Tainy.