After a two-day long hearing that included several speakers and the reading of over 70 written letters to the court, Toronto singer-rapper Tory Lanez has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for the 2020 shooting of fellow rapper Megan Thee Stallion. The decision, made by Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge David Herriford, was announced by L.A. County district attorney George Gascon, who praised Megan for her endurance during the trial and sentencing.
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“I commend Megan for her incredible bravery and vulnerability as she underwent months of probing investigation and court appearances where she had to relive her trauma, and the public scrutiny that followed,” Gascon said. “Women, especially Black women, are afraid to report crimes like assault because they are too often not believed.”
[RELATED: Iggy Azalea Clarifies Support for Tory Lanez Amid His Sentencing]
With the news coming in just before 6:30 p.m. ET on Tuesday (August 8), per Legal Affairs and Trials reporter Meghann Cuniff, Lanez was able to address the court one last time, where he spoke about Megan as “someone I still care for dearly to this day.”
“We both lost our mothers. We would sit there and drink, and drink until we got numb,” Lanez recalled. “I said some very immature things that I shouldn’t have said. I revealed some secrets I shouldn’t have revealed.”
The decade-long decision from Judge Herriford comes about eight months after Lanez was initially found guilty of assault with a semiautomatic firearm, having an unregistered loaded gun in a vehicle, and discharge with gross negligence in December 2022. After submitting multiple appeals and asking for probation, Lanez’s sentencing began on Monday (August 7).
During the first day, Lanez’s legal team presented dozens of letters from the rapper’s supporters, urging Herriford to have mercy when handing down a sentence. In this stack of letters was one from Australian rapper Iggy Azalea, where she asked for Lanez to receive a sentence “that is transformational” and “not life destroying.”
Along with letters supporting Lanez, though, came a statement from Megan Thee Stallion, who suffered gunshot wounds in her foot at the hands of Lanez three summers ago.
“I’ve not experienced a single day of peace,” she wrote. “He not only shot me, he made a mockery of my trauma. He tried to position himself as a victim and set out to destroy my character and my soul.”
Photo by Johnny Nunez/Getty Images
