Tory Lanez has been hit with a third felony charge as he awaits openingstatements in his trial over claims he shot Megan Thee Stallion in her feetmore than two years ago.
Prosecutors added the new charge of discharging a firearm with grossnegligence on Monday, amid ongoing jury selection in the case, _Rollingstone_learned.
Lanez, whose legal name is Daystar Peterson, previously pleaded not guilty toone felony count each of assault with a semiautomatic firearm and carrying aloaded, unregistered firearm in a vehicle. He also faces a gun allegation thathe personally involved great bodily injury.
The new charge carries a possible six-year prison sentence and still qualifiesas a deportable crime if jurors opt to convict him of negligent discharge asopposed to the more serious assault count. (The Alone at Prom performer is aCanadian citizen.) If convicted on all counts, Peterson still is facing thesame maximum sentence of 22 years and eight months. The new charge doesn’t addto the exposure because it relates to the same alleged conduct, so any relatedsentence would run concurrent.
Peterson, 30, is accused of pointing a semiautomatic 9mm handgun at Megan’sfeet, yelling, “Dance, bitch!” and opening fire in the predawn hours of July12, 2020.
Peterson and Megan had been traveling in a Cadillac Escalade with Megan’s bestfriend, Kelsey Harris, and Peterson’s bodyguard when an argument caused Meganto exit the vehicle on a dark residential street in the Hollywood Hills,according to testimony at Peterson’s preliminary hearing last year.
An LAPD detective testified that he was assigned to the case two days afterthe shooting and interviewed Megan, born Megan Pete, over the phone on July16, 2020, and then again on Nov. 12, 2020. He said the “Savage” singer clearlyidentified Peterson as her assassin.
“As she exited the vehicle, she heard Mr. Peterson yelling obscenities at her,and he stated, ‘Dance, bitch!’ And he then began firing a weapon at her,” Det.Ryan Stogner tested.
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“(Megan) observed Mr. Peterson holding a firearm, and then she observed himstart to shoot,” Stogner said. “Megan immediately felt pain to her feet,observed blood, fell to the ground, and then crawled to an adjacent drivewayof a residence…She described her injuries as bleeding profusely.”
He said Megan initially lied and told police, saying that she had stepped onglass because she was in fear of how the officers might respond.
“She said that at the time, she was extremely scared and embarrassed, and dueto the fact that she was friends with the defendant, she was scared that hewas going to get in trouble, and she also expressed some concerns regardingthe political climate regarding police and shootings,” Stogner testified. “Shewas afraid that there had been recent police shootings, and she described herconcern about the police possibly shooting the defendant since he had justcommitted a shooting.”
Stogner said medical records from Cedars-Sinai Hospital confirmed doctorsfound bullet fragments in both of Megan’s feet.
For her part, Harris hasn’t spoken publicly about the shooting, but herfriendship with Megan has become estranged. She appeared under a subpoena fromprosecutors at a prior hearing and is due to testify in the case.
During a motion hearing on Monday, Tory’s new defense lawyer George Mgdesyanargued that prosecutors should be barred from mentioning in their openingstatement that Peterson allegedly apologized to Harris during a jail callafter the shooting. He said unless Harris testifies and lays an adequatefoundation for the call, it should remain off-limits.
Los Angeles County Judge **** David Herriford said that as long as prosecutorshave a good-faith belief Harris will testify, he would allow them to statewhat they believe the evidence will show. He also said another witness mightbe able to lay the necessary foundation. Either way, prosecutors confirmedthey expect Harris will testify.
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The rough contents of the jail call were revealed at Peterson’s probable causehearing last December. “The accused to apologize for the incident thatoccurred. He told Kelsey basically that he was drunk, and he was sorry forwhat he had done,” Stogner testified, adding that he personally reviewed thejail call purportedly placed shortly after the shooting.
Under cross-examination last year, Stogner said Megan and Harris had beenclose friends for about seven years but apparently “stopped their friendship”shortly after the incident.
As she grilled Stogner under cross-examination, Peterson’s lawyer at the time,Shawn Holley, claimed the “argument in the car escalated” because Petersonclaimed he and Megan had been in some type of intimate relationship, andHarris became upset because she “had a romantic interest in Tory.”
Holley then suggested maybe Harris fired the weapon, zeroing in on a portionof a statement from a third-party eyewitness who reported seeing some of theincidents from his nearby balcony. The witness purportedly said it appeared tohim that the muzzle flash was closest to the non-victim female at the time ofthe shooting.
On Monday, prosecutors asked Judge Herriford to rule that if Peterson declinesto testify, his lawyers should be barred from pursuing a “third-partyculpability defense” in which they might name a different possible shooter.Deputy District Attorney Alexander Bott said the statement from the eyewitnesson the balcony was all over the place and that the witness has firmly statedhe “doesn’t know who the shooter is.”
According to Bott, the man’s first statement claimed that “nine people got outof the car: five men and four women.” (There were only four people in thecar.) The man also allegedly claimed at one point that he was woken up by thegunshots and didn’t see the shooting, Bott told the court. “Every time he gavea statement, the details shifted,” Bott said. “He’s grossly unreliable.”
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Judge Herriford said Monday that prosecutors would have to file a writtenmotion on the matter before he would make a ruling.
Opening statements in the trial are set to begin on Dec. 12.