The Canadian rapper and singer Tory Lanez is expected to be sentenced on Tuesday for shooting Megan Thee Stallion, a fellow artist and onetime friend, in both her feet during an argument in the summer of 2020.
The sentencing portion of the case began on Monday, when Judge David Herriford read aloud summaries of 76 supportive letters he received from Mr. Lanez’s friends, family and colleagues, as well as fellow artists such as Iggy Azalea. A prosecutor read a statement from Megan Thee Stallion that said she could not bring herself to be in the same room as Mr. Lanez.
“I have been tormented and terrorized,” said Megan Thee Stallion, adding that she “spiraled to a dark, angry place” as Mr. Lanez mocked her trauma.
The prosecution, which is seeking a 13-year sentence for Mr. Lanez, born Daystar Peterson, successfully argued for two aggravating factors in the case — that a weapon was used and that the victim was particularly vulnerable.
“With less luck, your honor, this would be a murder case,” Alexander Bott, a deputy district attorney, said.
Mr. Lanez, 31, was found guilty in December of three felony counts: assault with a semiautomatic handgun; carrying a loaded, unregistered firearm in a vehicle; and discharging a firearm with gross negligence. He faces a maximum of 22 years and eight months in prison, as well as potential deportation to Canada.
Details of the assault came out gradually via social media and evolving law enforcement accounts, leading to a yearslong legal saga that became tawdry tabloid fodder while also generating conversation about the treatment of Black women in music and beyond.
Lawyers for Mr. Lanez have asked for probation instead of prison time, citing the musician’s relationship to alcohol and childhood trauma, including physical abuse and the death of his mother when he was 11. Mr. Lanez’s “alcohol-use disorder, although not amounting to a defense, reduced his culpability,” his legal team said in a sentencing memo.
On Monday, Judge Herriford read summaries of letters that attested to Mr. Lanez’s character, charity work and commitment to family and community. The defense also brought in people to testify on Mr. Lanez’s behalf, including a prison chaplain and a colleague who helped with the rapper’s philanthropic work.
His father, Sonstar Peterson, gave a sometimes tearful account of Mr. Lanez’s childhood and apologized to the judge for his emotional outburst at the reading of the verdict in December.
Lawyers for Mr. Lanez, 31, had filed a motion for a new trial, arguing that Instagram posts and a tattoo shown in court were prejudicial evidence, but the judge denied their request in May. Prosecutors had said the defense’s motion was “replete with colorful rhetoric” but lacked substance and failed to “cite a single instance of error in the trial court.”
Following that hearing, Mr. Lanez told the judge: “Please don’t ruin my life. I could be your son, I could be your brother.”
Prosecutors have previously argued that Mr. Lanez lacked remorse and was “clearly incapable of accepting any responsibility for his own actions,” citing “a campaign to humiliate and retraumatize the victim” following the shooting.
“The defendant has weaponized misinformation to his large following to such a degree that it has left a lasting traumatic impact on the victim,” the prosecution wrote in a sentencing memorandum this year.
Ahead of the trial, the two artists traded barbs in songs and online for more than a year. In court, Megan Thee Stallion, born Megan Pete, testified that Mr. Lanez, with whom she had a brief romantic entanglement, fired at her several times after she exited a vehicle that was taking them home from a pool party at the reality star Kylie Jenner’s residence.
According to testimony, a drunken fight about relationships and careers had erupted between the two artists and another friend in the S.U.V., Kelsey Harris.
Megan Thee Stallion, 28, initially told responding officers that she had stepped on glass, explaining later that she had been on high alert after the police killing of George Floyd and was also worried about how “snitching” on Mr. Lanez would affect her career in hip-hop. Following initial coverage of the case, in which Mr. Lanez was charged only with weapons possession, Megan Thee Stallion named the rapper as her assailant on Instagram.
She testified that Mr. Lanez had apologized and offered her and Ms. Harris a million dollars each to keep quiet about the shooting.
On the stand, Ms. Harris declined to identify Mr. Lanez as the gunman, even as the defense put forth a theory that she may have shot her friend out of jealousy. But in earlier text messages and an interview with detectives that were also presented to the jury, Ms. Harris corroborated Megan Thee Stallion’s story.
Mr. Lanez’s sentencing had originally been scheduled for January but was rescheduled several times, as he hired new lawyers and sought a new trial.
