The California Supreme Court has refused Tory Lanez’s bid to overturn his convictions for shooting Megan Thee Stallion, effectively affirming his 10-year prison sentence.
In an order issued last week, the state’s top court denied a petition for review filed by the singer (Daystar Peterson), who was found guilty in 2022 of shooting Megan (Megan Pete) in the foot during a drunken argument on a Hollywood Hills street.
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Lanez and his supporters have long maintained his innocence, arguing there’s insufficient proof he was the shooter and that he received an unfair trial. But a lower appeals court rejected that argument in November, upholding the conviction and his lengthy prison sentence.
The new order by the Supreme Court, issued Wednesday (Feb. 25), refused Lanez’s request for the high court to review that earlier ruling. Like the U.S. Supreme Court, California’s highest court hears only a small fraction of the cases it receives.
The order comes more than five years after the July 12, 2020, shooting, which happened as a driver was shuttling Lanez, Megan and her assistant/friend Kelsey Harris from a party at Kylie Jenner’s house. According to prosecutors, when Megan got out of a vehicle and began walking away, Lanez shouted “Dance, b—h!” and fired a gun at her feet, striking her once.
Following the incident, Megan initially told police officers that she had cut her foot stepping on broken glass, but days later alleged that she had been shot. Lanez was eventually charged with the shooting in October 2022.
During a blockbuster trial in Los Angeles court, Lanez’s lawyers tried to sow doubt over who had really pulled the trigger, painting a scenario in which Harris could have been the shooter. But a key defense witness offered confusing eyewitness testimony, and prosecutors pointed to an earlier interview in which Harris pinned the blame squarely on Lanez. Megan herself offered powerful testimony that Lanez had been the one to shoot her, and neither Lanez nor the driver took the witness stand.
Lanez and his supporters have refused to accept that verdict, calling it a “miscarriage of justice.” His legal team has filed multiple forms of appeal to challenge the verdict, each of which has now been rejected. They have also repeatedly made public claims about new or alternative evidence that allegedly exonerates him, but Megan’s reps and prosecutors strongly deny that.
