Grammy nominated rapper, Tory Lanez, has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for shooting fellow rapper, Megan Thee Stallion, and injuring her feet after a party in the Hollywood Hills in July 2020.
This comes more than seven months after 31-year-old Lanez, was convicted on three felonies: assault with a semiautomatic firearm, having a loaded, unregistered firearm in a vehicle and discharging a firearm with gross negligence.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge, David Herriford, who handed down the sentence on Tuesday said it was “difficult to reconcile” the kind, charitable person and good father many people described Lanez as being during the sentencing hearing with the person who fired the gun at Megan Thee Stallion.
Grammy Award winning rapper, Megan Thee Stallion, did not attend the sentencing hearing, saying she could not bear to be in the same room as Lanez but wrote a statement that was read in court on Monday, the New York Times reported.
In a statement read by a prosecutor on Monday, Megan Thee Stallion said 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. Slowly but surely, I’m healing and coming back, but I will never be the same.”
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.
Lanez pleaded for mercy just before the judge delivered his sentence. Lanez requested either probation or a minimal prison sentence.
“If I could turn back the series of events that night and change them”, I would, Lanez said. “The victim was my friend. The victim is someone I still care for to this day.”
He added: “Everything I did wrong that night, I take full responsibility for.”
The shooting was preceded by an argument that became heated when the two began attacking each other’s music careers, Megan Thee Stallion said during the two-week trial.
“He not only shot me, he made a mockery of my trauma,” the statement said. “This is a statement for all survivors that their lives matter and there is zero tolerance for the torture that accompanies violence.”
Megan Thee Stallion won three Grammy awards for best new artist, best rap performance and best rap song in 2021.
