Tory Lanez lost his appeal in his criminal case Wednesday when a three-judge panel upheld his conviction and 10-year prison sentence for the 2020 roadside shooting that landed Megan Thee Stallion in the hospital.
Lanez, whose legal name is Daystar Peterson, tried to overturn the 2022 conviction and sentence on numerous grounds. He claimed his right to testify was unfairly chilled by the prospect his song lyrics and other damaging evidence might become fair game under cross-examination. He also claimed the trial court erred in allowing prosecutors to play their recorded interview with Megan’s former best friend, Kelsey Harris, in which Harris corroborated Megan’s claims that Peterson was the shooter.
“Neither Peterson nor his counsel ever told the court that Peterson wished to testify, but was deterred by the prospect of impeachment by the prosecution,” the appellate court said in its 46-page opinion. The judges went on to say the trial judge made the right call in allowing jurors to hear the Harris recording because after she was subpoenaed and given immunity, she “repeatedly claimed not to remember what had happened.” The judges said the recording was admissible as a prior inconsistent statement.
“When a trial court concludes, on substantial evidence, that a witness’s professed lapses of memory are false, evasive devices to avoid truthful answers, it may admit as ‘inconsistent’ the witness’s prior statements describing events the witness now claims to have forgotten,” the judges ruled.
“We find no prejudicial error and, accordingly, affirm Peterson’s conviction,” the justices from California’s Second Appellate District ruled. “As we find no ineffective assistance of counsel or prejudicial trial court error, we also find no cumulative error.”
Peterson, 33, is currently serving a 10-year prison sentence for shooting and injuring Megan on a street in Los Angeles after a party at Kylie Jenner’s house. At trial, jurors heard testimony that Peterson pointed a handgun at Megan’s feet and fired five rounds while saying, “Dance bitch.” Megan suffered gunshot wounds to both of her feet and required emergency surgery.
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Jurors saw evidence that Harris, who was a witness, also texted Megan’s bodyguard five minutes after the shooting in an apparent cry for assistance. “Help / Tory shot meg / 911,” the three-line text shown to jurors said.
The jury also heard a recorded jail call that Peterson made to Harris shortly after the shooting. He blamed alcohol and said Megan was “probably never ever gonna ever talk to me ever again.” In a subsequent text to Megan, he wrote, “I know u prolly never gone to talk to me again. But I genuinely want u to know I’m sorry from the bottom of my heart. And I was just too drunk. None the less shit should have never happened and I can’t change what did. I just feel horrible. Cuz I genuinely just got too drunk.”
Jurors convicted Peterson of assault with a semiautomatic firearm. He raised 10 claims in the opening brief for his appeal, filed in February 2024. He alleged evidence, including Harris’ recorded interview, was improperly admitted, that prosecutors engaged in misconduct, and that the jury was improperly instructed. He also claimed the court erred in sentencing him to the middle term instead of imposing the low term.
Prosecutors responded by arguing Peterson called no direct witnesses himself and declined to testify. Beyond his direct appeal, Peterson tried to overturn his conviction with habeas petitions claiming that new evidence or issues not known during the trial were sufficient to undermine the jury verdict. The appellate panel rejected those habeas petitions in August.
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In their ruling Wednesday, the appellate judges said the sentence was supported by the aggravating factor that Megan was a “particularly vulnerable” victim. Prosecutors had argued she fit the definition because she was unarmed and “clad in a bathing suit with her back turned” when the shooting happened. The sentencing judge concluded prosecutors met their burden, and the appellate panel agreed.
“We find no error. Substantial evidence supports the trial court’s true finding on that aggravating factor. Moreover, even were that not the case, no resentencing would be required. The middle term was the presumptive term,” the judges said.
At Peterson’s 2022 trial, Megan gave three hours of harrowing testimony in which she recalled her “terrified” reaction to the assault. She admitted she lied when she previously denied having been “intimate” with Lanez, but she explained to jurors that the non-exclusive relationship left her feeling “embarrassed,” and ultimately, she considered it irrelevant to the actual shooting.
“Because I was shot, I’ve been turned into some kind of villain, and he’s the victim. This has messed up my whole life,” she said. At her lowest she thought, “I wish he would have just shot and killed me (rather than) have to go through this torture,” Megan told the jury.
The chief resident of orthopedic surgery at Cedars Sinai Medical Center walked jurors through X-rays showing Megan’s gunshot wounds on both of her lower extremities. He said doctors identified four metallic bullet fragments embedded in her feet and removed what they could during emergency surgery.
“The surgeon described in detail the steps a team of three surgeons took to remove ‘questionable tissue’ and the metal fragments, flush the areas, and close the wounds with sutures,” the appellate panel wrote in the ruling. “This testimony was more than sufficient to support the jury’s finding that Peterson personally inflicted great bodily injury on [Megan].”
A man who lived on the residential street where the shooting occurred, Sean Kelly, testified that he woke up to the sound of an argument. Looking out a window, Kelly saw two girls who were arguing and physically fighting next to a car, he testified.
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Kelly never saw a gun, he said, but he believed one of the women fired at least one shot because he saw a muzzle flash that seemed to come from her direction. But Kelly told jurors he also saw a “very agitated” shorter man “firing everywhere.” At the time the shots were fired, the man had an object in his hand with his arms outstretched, Kelly testified.
A spokesman for Peterson’s appellate lawyers did not immediately respond to Rolling Stone‘s request for comment on Wednesday. Peterson is currently serving his sentence at the California Men’s Colony in San Luis Obispo, California. He was moved to the new location after he was stabbed by a fellow inmate at a different state prison in Tehachapi in May.
