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Tory Lanez Sentenced to 10 Years in Prison for Shooting Megan Thee Stallion
The Canadian rapper was convicted in December of assault with a semiautomatic firearm, carrying a loaded, unregistered firearm in a vehicle, and discharging a firearm with gross negligence.
Canadian rapper Tory Lanez was sentenced to 10 years in prison Tuesday for shooting fellow hip hop artist Megan Thee Stallion in 2020.
Lanez, whose legal name is Daystar Peterson, was convicted in December of assault with a semiautomatic firearm, carrying a loaded, unregistered firearm in a vehicle, and discharging a firearm with gross negligence.
The 31-year-old, wearing an orange jumpsuit, addressed the court in Los Angeles Tuesday to apologize for the shooting before he was handed his sentence.
RELATED: Tory Lanez Spent Christmas In Jail After Being Convicted Of Shooting Megan Thee Stallion
“If I could change it, I would, but I can’t,” Lanez said, according to NBC News. “Everything I did that night, I take full responsibility. I truly am just trying to be a better person.”
Lanez’s defense team said they plan to file appeals for both the sentencing and conviction.
Megan Thee Stallion, 28, testified during the trial that Lanez shot her in the feet after an argument outside a party at Kylie Jenner’s Los Angeles home on July 12, 2020. She said Lanez shouted at her to, “Dance bitch,” before shooting her, leaving the “Savage” rapper with bullet fragments in her feet.
“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 at the sentencing, according to the Associated Press. “Slowly but surely, I’m healing and coming back, but I will never be the same.”
In considering whether to read her statement in person at the hearing, the hip-hop star stated she “simply could not bring myself to be in a room with Tory again.” She asked that her absence not be taken as a lack of interest in the sentencing and urged Los Angeles Superior Court Judge David Herriford to deal Lanez a stiff punishment.
Prosecutors requested Lanez receive a 13-year sentence. The rapper also faced deportation back to Canada.
Ahead of the hearing, fellow rapper Iggy Azalea submitted a letter in support of Lanez. Her note was one of 76 letters of recommendations for the rapper, according to Rolling Stone.
Though her letter hasn’t been made public, Herriford reportedly said that Azalea’s letter requested Lanez be served a sentence "that is transformational, not life destroying."
Azalea addressed her letter on Twitter, writing, “I am not in support of throwing away ANY ones life if we can give reasonable punishments that are rehabilitative instead. I support prison reform. Period.”
Lanez's sentencing was postponed in January when the musician obtained new attorneys, ABC reported. It was then postponed again when the rapper and his defense filed a motion for a new trial, which Herriford denied in May.
Lanez, who released a 2020 album rebutting Megan Thee Stallion’s account of what happened the night of the shooting, did not testify during trial, according to NBC News.
RELATED: Prosecutors Make Closing Arguments In Tory Lanez Trial Over Megan Thee Stallion Shooting
His defense team called the trial a “case about jealousy,” adding that Megan and her former friend Kelsey Nichole Harris got into an argument about Lanez before the shooting.
Herriford said during Tuesday’s hearing that it is “difficult to reconcile” the philanthropist and loving father many described Lanez as with the man who shot at Megan Thee Stallion multiple times.
“Sometimes good people do bad things,” Herriford said, according to NBC News. “Actions have consequences, and there are no winners in this case.”
