Canadian rapper, Tory Lanez, has lost his appeal in his criminal case after a three-judge panel upheld his conviction and 10-year prison sentence for the 2020 roadside shooting that landed Megan Thee Stallion in the hospital.
Lanez, whose legal name is Daystar Peterson, tried to overturn the 2022 conviction and sentence on numerous grounds. He claimed his right to testify was unfairly chilled by the prospect his song lyrics and other damaging evidence might become fair game under cross-examination.
He also claimed the trial court erred in allowing prosecutors to play their recorded interview with Megan’s former best friend, Kelsey Harris, in which Harris corroborated Megan’s claims that Peterson was the sho0ter.
“Neither Peterson nor his counsel ever told the court that Peterson wished to testify, but was deterred by the prospect of impeachment by the prosecution,” the appellate court said in its 46-page opinion.
The judges went on to say the trial judge made the right call in allowing jurors to hear the Harris recording because after she was subpoenaed and given immunity, she “repeatedly claimed not to remember what had happened.”
The judges said the recording was admissible as a prior inconsistent statement.
“When a trial court concludes, on substantial evidence, that a witness’s professed lapses of memory are false, evasive devices to avoid truthful answers, it may admit as ‘inconsistent’ the witness’s prior statements describing events the witness now claims to have forgotten,” the judges ruled.
“We find no prejudicial error and, accordingly, affirm Peterson’s conviction,” the justices from California’s Second Appellate District ruled. “As we find no ineffective assistance of counsel or prejudicial trial court error, we also find no cumulative error.”
Peterson, 33, is currently serving a 10-year prison sentence for shooting and injuring Megan on a street in Los Angeles after a party at Kylie Jenner’s house.
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