A jury based in Los Angeles found rapper and singer Tory Lanez guilty of three previous charges dating back to the July 2020 shooting of fellow rapper Megan Thee Stallion in the Hollywood Hills, the American media was informed by Los Angeles County District Attorney.
Lanez earlier had not pleaded guilty to the crime, of carrying a loaded unregistered firearm inside a vehicle, while late yesterday he has been convicted on all the three charges under which he was booked.
Megan has accused Lanez of shooting in her foot after she stepped outside the vehicle in which they were traveling following an argument. In her testimony during the court proceedings, Megan informed the jury that things were tense in the car between her, Lanez, and her former friend Kelsey Harris.
The artist testified Lanez wanted her to come clean with Harris about the fact that the two of them had been intimate. But Billboard reports Megan was uncomfortable doing so because she knew Harris had a crush on the Canadian singer and rapper.
“I started walking away and I hear Tory yell, ‘Dance, b***h,” she tearfully testified, according to Billboard. “I froze. I just felt shocked. I felt hurt. I looked down at my feet and I see all of this blood.”
Megan “showed incredible courage and vulnerability” during her testimony “despite repeated and grotesque attacks,” LA County DA George Gascón said in a statement while interacting with the media following the verdict.
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“Women, especially Black women, are afraid to report crimes like assault and sexual violence because they are too often not believed. This trial, for the second time this month, highlighted the numerous ways that our society must do better for women,” Gascón added,
In an acknowledgment, he thanked Jurors for the time they had given for thoughtful deliberation and leading to the pronouncement of judgment. Moreover, Lanez did not take a stand in his defense during the nine-day trial.
The jury, comprised of five men and seven women, began deliberating Thursday and a verdict was reached on Friday afternoon.
Following the pronouncement of the verdict Lanez is set to face a maximum of 22 years of sentence in prison and possible deportation back to Canada where is a native.