Rapper Tory Lanez was sentenced Tuesday to 10 years in prison for shooting hip-hop star Megan Thee Stallion in the feet after leaving a party in the Hollywood Hills.
Judge David Herriford of Los Angeles Superior Court handed down the sentence after prosecutors had asked for a sentence of 13 years in state prison. Defense attorneys wanted probation for their client.
The 31-year-old Canadian star was convicted last Dec. 23 of one felony count each of assault with a semiautomatic firearm, having a loaded unregistered firearm in a vehicle and discharging a firearm with gross negligence.
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Lanez has been behind bars since he was ordered to be taken into custody shortly after the jury's verdict was read.
The shooting happened three years ago. Megan testified during the trial that Lanez had fired the gun at the back of her feet and shouted for her to dance as she walked away from an SUV in which they had been riding in summer 2020. The pair had left a party at Kylie Jenner’s Hollywood Hills home.
“Since I was viciously shot by the defendant, I have not experienced a single day of peace,” Megan said in a statement read by Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney Kathy Ta during Monday's all-day session. “Slowly but surely, I'm healing and coming back, but I will never be the same.”
The hip-hop star, who testified during the trial, said she struggled with whether she would appear to give the statement in person, but said she “simply could not bring myself to be in a room with Tory again.”
She asked that her absence not be taken as a sign of indifference, and urged Judge David Herriford to issue a stiff sentence.
The judge had been expected to sentence Lanez Monday at a hearing that often can take only a couple of hours, but the proceedings turned into a marathon two-day session after Herriford had attorneys for the two sides argue each factor of his potential sentence. The judge also allowed seven witnesses, including Lanez's father and the mother of his 6-year-old son, to give statements on Lanez's charitable giving, his childhood trauma, and his loving parenting.
Lawyers for Lanez said in a sentencing memo that he should get only probation and be released from jail to enter a residential substance abuse program. They plan to appeal his conviction.
