Canadian rapper Tory Lanez has been handed a 10-year jail sentence after he was convicted of shooting fellow musical Megan Thee Stallion.
Lanez shot Megan Thee Stallion at a pool party at the Hollywood Hills in July 2020 following an argument.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge David Herriford handed down the sentence on Tuesday to the 31-year-old Lanez, who was convicted on three counts of assault; assault with a semiautomatic firearm, having a loaded, unregistered firearm in a vehicle and discharging a firearm with gross negligence.
Megan Thee Stallion testified that Lanez fired the gun at the back of her feet and shouted for her to dance as she walked away from an SUV in which they had been riding in July 2020, after leaving a pool party at Kylie Jenner’s Hollywood Hills home.
She had to have surgery to remove bullet fragments.
“Since I was viciously shot by the defendant, I have not experienced a single day of peace,” Megan Thee Stallion said in a statement read by a prosecutor on Monday.
“Slowly but surely, I’m healing and coming back, but I will never be the same,” she said.
The sentence brings an end to a dramatic trial that created a cultural firestorm in the hip-hop community, churning up issues including the reluctance of Black victims to speak to police, gender politics in hip-hop, online toxicity, protecting Black women and the ramifications of misogynoir – a particular brand of misogyny Black women experience.
The Canadian rapper asked the judge for a leniency before he delivered his sentence.
“If I could turn back the series of events that night and change them”, I would. The victim was my friend. The victim is someone I still care for to this day. Everything I did wrong that night, I take full responsibility for,” Lanez said.
Lanez appeared stunned while the sentence was read but had no audible reaction. His family and fans in the courtroom also remained quiet after the sentence.
The rapper was given about 10 months of credit for the time he has served since his conviction in December.
