The prosecution team in the trial of Tory Lanez has recommended to the judge that the rapper receives over a decade in prison during his formal sentencing next week for the shooting of rapper Megan Thee Stallion.
Lanez, real name Daystar Peterson, was found guilty of assault with a semiautomatic firearm, having a loaded, unregistered firearm in a vehicle, and discharging a firearm with gross negligence on December 23, 2022. This shooting resulted in bodily injury to Megan Thee Stallion, real name Megan Pete.
Prosecutors filed a memo on June 6 stating that any sentence less than 13 years for Lanez would not only “endanger public safety,” but “not be in the interest of justice,” according to a report from Billboard. They cite not only the violent act that took place in July 2020, resulting in bullet injuries to both Megan’s feet, but to what they call “a campaign to humiliate and re-traumatize the victim” that persisted for well over a year thereafter.
“The defendant actively invited harassment of the victim by spreading misinformation to his large following in an effort to galvanize the public against the victim and even the prosecution team without any regard to the dangers it posed,” prosecutors wrote in the memorandum. “The defendant has weaponized misinformation to his large following to such a degree that it has left a lasting traumatic impact on the victim.”
Megan has gone on record detailing the intense mental and emotional toll the continued public scrutiny against her, largely based on these persistent rumors and pervasive misinformation, has caused long-term.
“Not only did I survive being shot by someone I trusted and considered a close friend, but I overcame the public humiliation of having my name and reputation dragged through the mud by that individual for the entire world to see,” the rapper wrote in an op-ed for ELLE last April. “For years, my attacker laughed and joked about my trauma. For years, my attacker peddled false narratives about what happened on the night of July 12, 2020. 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? Especially from a person who was once part of your inner circle.”
The prosecution cites Lanez’s constant taunts of the rap superstar post-incident, including a premeditated violation of the temporary restraining order she was granted against him in 2021, as proof that he “lacks remorse” for the shooting incident.
According to portions of the prosecutor’s memo acquired by The Fader, the incident in question found Lanez, though not a formally booked act on the lineup of Rolling Loud Miami in 2021, enterting the backstage, greenrooms, and stages of the festival and making an alleged attempt to rush the stage during Megan Thee Stallion’s scheduled set alongside her then-frequent collaborator, DaBaby. Despite having clear instruction that he was legally required to remain at least 100 yards away from her, Lanez allegedly conspired with the “BOP” rapper, who performed immediately after Megan Thee Stallion, to each run onto the stage while she was mid-performance. The memo did not detail what the two planned to do once onstage with Megan in front of the audience of roughly 60,000 attendees.
Prosecutors also say that Megan “was incredibly fearful upon discovering the defendant was at the venue.” Lanez later performed as a surprise guest alongside DaBaby just after Megan exited the stage instead.
“The defendant’s lack of remorse is insidious, leaving this court no assurances that the defendant will not repeat this type of behavior in the future,” the filing continued. Citing Lanez’s post-verdict online assertions that the prosecution had worked to “hide and suppress evidence,” and given his recent motion to request for dismissal of the trial judge, the memo went on to suggest that the rapper is “clearly incapable of accepting any responsibility for his own actions.”