Canadian rapper Tory Lanez has been denied a new trial in the 2020 shooting of fellow rapper Megan Thee Stallion.
Lanez — real name Daystar Peterson — shot Megan in the feet after a party at Kylie Jenner’s home in the Hollywood Hills on July 12, 2020.
Megan — real name Megan Pete — told a jury that he fired five shots while yelling “Dance, b——-!”
“I hear the gun going off, and I can’t believe he’s shooting at me,” she said in court.
He was convicted on Dec. 23 of assault with a semiautomatic firearm, having a loaded, unregistered firearm in a vehicle and discharging a firearm with gross negligence.
With his request for a new trial denied, Lanez will face sentencing, which could send him to jail for more than 20 years. Sentencing has not yet been scheduled, according to James Queally of the Los Angeles Times.
The Tuesday decision to deny Lanez a new trial came amid some unorthodox moves by the rapper’s lawyers, who claimed to Judge David Herriford that his previous representation failed to provide an adequate defense against the charges.
“In a jaw-dropping move, Lanez’s lawyers filed a motion to disqualify Judge Herriford from Lanez’s case, then told the judge they didn’t think he could issue his ruling until the motion was resolved. Herriford disagreed,” legal journalist Meghann Cuniff reported on Twitter.
Before he was led away in handcuffs, Lanez reportedly begged Judge David Herriford for leniency.
“Please don’t ruin my life. I could be your son. I could be your brother,” he told Herriford, who is also Black, according to HipHopDX.
Herriford didn’t reply, the online outlet added.
