A Los Angeles judge on Tuesday denied lawyers’ request for a new trial of rapper Tory Lanez, who was convicted of three felonies in December for shooting hip-hop star Megan Thee Stallion in the feet and injuring her.
High Court Justice Herriford rejected arguments by Lanez’s lawyers that evidence had been erroneously admitted at a trial he presided over.
He said that the exclusion of the disputed evidence wouldn’t matter at trial.
Lanez, 30, whose legal name is Daystar Peterson, will now convicted of assault with a semi-automatic firearm, carrying a loaded, unregistered firearm in a vehicle, and firing a firearm with gross negligence.
He faces as much as 22 years in prison and deportation to his native Canada.
As he was led from the courtroom back to prison the day before after a motion hearing, he pleaded with Herriford for help, saying, “I could be your son. I could possibly be your brother.
Requests for a new trial filed immediately afterwards with the same judge are sometimes a precursor to appeals to a higher court, which Lanez’s attorneys are planning.
![Tory Lanez faces up to 22 years in prison and deportation to his native Canada.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/05/GettyImages-997069038.jpg?w=1024)
Conclusions are very rarely successful.
Lanez’s lawyers claimed that a post from his Instagram account was improperly admitted as evidence.
They said Megan’s statement that Lanez had urged her to not go to the police because he was on parole and can be in deep trouble was each unfaithful and inappropriately reflecting past wrongdoing.
And so they said the DNA evidence prosecutors used to argue that Lanez was the likely shooter falls far wanting industry standards.
Lanez’s attorneys were disenchanted to begin Monday’s all-day oral arguments on their motion.
They’d an in depth presentation prepared, complete with audiovisual material and witnesses, but Herriford refused to have it, as a substitute insisting on narrow legal arguments on the specific issues raised, as is the norm for such motions in a California court.
They long pleaded with Herriford to allow them to present their arguments as that they had planned.
![Megan Thee Stallion arrives at court to testify in Tory Lanez's trial for allegedly shooting her.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/05/GettyImages-1245590572.jpg?w=1024)
“I feel I can be ineffective if we continued,” said attorney Jose Baez. “Mr. Peterson has the right to a fair trial to which he’s entitled.”
They moved on in protest and later filed a motion to disqualify the referee.
Lanez’s lawyers, who didn’t represent him at the trial, said the attorney who did, George Mgdesyan, made mistakes in his case because he had so little time to arrange for the trial when the rapper’s previous attorney dropped out.
Megan Thee Stallion, whose official name is Megan Pete, testified that Lanez fired a gun at her feet and yelled at her to bounce as she walked away from the SUV they were driving in the Hollywood Hills in the summer of 2017. 2020.
Mgdesyan said at the trial that Megan lied in her testimony and Lanez didn’t pull the trigger. He later said there was not enough evidence to convict.
![Tory Lanez's lawyers said Megan's testimony that the rapper urged her not to go to the police because he was on parole and would be in serious trouble was a lie.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/05/GettyImages-1427307407.jpg?w=1024)
As was the case throughout the trial, the courtroom was filled with media, Lanez fans and members of the family, and lots of others were in the hallway.
The shooting and trial sparked a storm of cultural issues and arguments that peaked during the trial, including black victims’ reluctance to talk over with the police, protection of black women, gender politics in hip-hop, and online toxicity.
After the verdict was read in December, Lanez’s father, Sonstar Peterson, stood up and denounced the “wicked system” that led to his son’s conviction and banishment from the courtroom.
No judgment date has been set.
Lanez began releasing mixtapes in 2009 and saw a regular rise in popularity as he progressed to major label albums. His last two reached the top ten on the Billboard charts.
Megan Thee Stallion was already a rising star at the time of filming and her prominence skyrocketed. In 2021, she won the Grammy Award for Best New Artist and her singles “Savage” featuring Beyoncé reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and featuring Cardi B’s “WAP”.