Tory Lanez will not take the stand in his assault trial, singer tells judge

Tory Lanez will not testify in his own defense, the singer told the court on day eight of his trial for allegedly shooting ex-lover and fellow hip-hop star Megan Thee Stallion in July 2020. 

Judge David Herriford on Wednesday reminded Lanez that he had a right to testify, but the 30-year-old said he has decided not to take the stand after consulting with his attorney. 

Lanez appeared at the criminal court in downtown Los Angeles dressed in a blue-green jacket, black pants and a black turtleneck sweater. 

Tory Lanez (pictured arriving at criminal court in Downtown LA on Monday) confirmed he will not testify in his own defense, on day eight of his trial on Wednesday. He is charged with shooting fellow hip-hop star Megan Thee Stallion during an incident in July 2020 

Megan Thee Stallion shared photos of the injuries she sustained on her foot after Tory Lanez allegedly shot her

He has pleaded not guilty to three felony charges of assaulting Megan with a semiautomatic firearm, carrying a concealed gun in a vehicle and discharging a firearm with gross negligence.

The Canadian musician – whose real name is Daystar Peterson – could spend up to 18 years in prison if convicted of all three felonies, plus possible deportation from the United States.

In her testimony last week, Megan, 27, told the jury of seven women and five men that she and Lanez had attended a pool party at Kylie Jenner’s Hollywood Hills home on July 12, 2020. 

She said the two were in his SUV with Megan’s assistant and best friend, Kelsey Harris, when an argument erupted and she asked the driver to pull over. 

Megan, whose real name is Megan Pete, said when she got out of the car Lanez allegedly shouted, ‘Dance b***h’, and fired several shots at her, injuring her feet so seriously that she needed surgery.

The defense has been pushing the theory that it wasn’t Lanez but Megan’s assistant and friend Kelsey Harris (pictured arriving at court on December 15) who fired the gun in a fit of jealousy and anger at Megan

In her testimony last week, Megan, 27, told the jury of seven women and five men that she and Lanez were leaving a pool party July 12, 2020 at the home of Kylie Jenner when an argument erupted. The two women are pictured together during an Instagram Live the night of the shooting

She also testified that Lanez offered her and Harris $1million to keep quiet about the shooting. 

Jenner, 25, who was named as a potential witness for the defense, is no longer expected to testify in the case. 

Lanez – who is free on $350,000 bail – later apologized to her, saying he was drunk at the time of the shooting.

Meanwhile, his defense team has been pushing the theory that it wasn’t Lanez but Harris who fired the gun in a fit of jealousy and anger at Megan when she found out the rapper had ‘backstabbed’ her by sleeping with Lanez, whom Kelsey had a crush on.

On Tuesday, eyewitness Sean Kelly gave startling new testimony, telling the jury that he saw Lanez, Megan’s assistant Kelsey Harris and Lanez driver ‘all beat’ Megan, punching and kicking her as she lay on the ground wounded from gunshots. 

 ‘It appeared to me that they were trying to kill her,’ said Kelly, whose home in the Hollywood Hills, overlooks the spot where the shooting happened in July 2020.

He told the court that Lanez was screaming ‘a torrent of abuse’ at Megan, ‘He was going crazy. He was really agitated,’ he added.

Kelly’s hour on the stand as a defense witness was often contradictory, depending on whether it was the prosecution or defense asking the questions. 

His testimony ranged from ‘He (Lanez) was firing everywhere, four or five times,’ to ‘I believe the girl (Kelsey Harris) fired the first shot.’  

Kelly told the jury Tuesday that he was woken up at about 4:30am by the sound of shouting and loud voices in the driveway outside his home.

Video footage showed the moments after the July 12, 2020 shooting, with Lanez and Thee Stallion, and a third person lying on the ground as authorities arrive

Megan had initially denied ever being in a romantic relationship with Lanez. The rapper – real name Daystar Peterson -–could spend up to 12 years in prison if convicted. The two are pictured in 2020

He got up to investigate, going out on the balcony of his second-floor bedroom and two girls fighting outside a car.

‘They were pulling hair and hitting each other. It was quite violent,’ he said.

The ‘taller guy’ (Lanez’s driver) got out of the car and walked around to the girls to try to separate them, Kelly told the court.

‘Then I heard what I though was fireworks…..I saw a muzzle flash about the same time the smaller gentleman (Lanez who is 5ft 3in) got out off the car.’

He said the first muzzle flash was ‘near the girls’ but when defense attorney George Mgdesyan asked him: ‘Who had the gun?’ Kelly said: ‘I never saw a gun. I just saw flashes.’

‘Where did you see the flashes come from?’ asked the lawyer. ‘The girl (Harris),’ said Kelly.

Judge David Herriford issued instructions to the jury on Wednesday before closing arguments were due to begin

‘Did you at any point hear anyone say, ‘Dance b***h’? Kelly was asked, answering ‘No.’

Mgdesyan asked Kelly several times, ‘after you saw the female shoot, did you see the smaller man appear to try to take the gun from her.’

Kelly kept pointing out that everything was happening very fast, and in a sarcastic answer that caused titters in the packed courtroom, he said: ‘It’s not like he went, ‘Excuse me, can I have the gun, it’s my turn.”

Pressed by Mgdesyan, he added that he believed the girl (Harris) ‘fired the first shot….Then I believe he (Lanez) started shooting.’

After the shooting, Kelly said, he saw Megan ‘crawling and stumbling’ into the nearby driveway and ‘the three of them (Lanez, Harris and Lanez’s driver) were beating her.

‘She was curled up on the ground in a fetal position. They were all beating her, punching and kicking her…. It appeared to me that they were trying to kill her.’

When Lanez’s driver said that the police were on the way, he went on, ‘They picked her up and looked like they were going to thrown her in the (nearby creek).

‘They dragged her across the street, put her in the car and took off.’

Under cross examination by Deputy District Attorney Alex Bott, Kelly said: ‘I saw the muzzle flash when the smaller gentleman (Lanez) got out of the car.

‘He was firing everywhere – four or five shots.

‘The short guy came out of the car and then shot the girl. She was kicking all the time. She fell into the middle of the road.’

Kelly told Bott that after she was shot, she ‘crawled away and rolled into a ball. And Lanez was screaming a ‘torrent of abuse at her, including words like ‘mother****er, and n****r.

‘He was going crazy. He was really agitated,’ he added.

Judge Herriford issued instructions to the jury Wednesday morning and the closing statements of prosecution and defense teams were scheduled to start in the afternoon.

Bott referred to last week’s contradictory court testimony by Megan’s one-time best friend and assistant Kelsey Harris in which she often answered questions about the shooting with ‘I can’t remember’ or she tried to invoke the Fifth Amendment so that she didn’t have to answer.

‘Something happened to Kelsey,’ between her court appearance last week and her interview with the DA last September when she said that she saw Lanez firing at Megan and Lanez offered both women $1 million to keep quiet about the shooting, Bott told the jury.

‘Something spooked her. Someone got to her. Maybe she took one of those bribes. She has been compromised in some way,’ he said. ‘She had courtroom amnesia. Getting her to admit the defendant offered her a $1 million bribe was like pulling teeth.’

Bott accused Lanez of ‘trying to put a lid’ on what happened during the sooting. ‘That’s been their strategy from the beginning – silence the witnesses against him.’

According to Harris’ interview with the DA last September, said Bott, ‘She saw the defendant shoot her best friend and Megan had her bloody feet resting on Kelsey’s lap in the back of the car. She was comforting Megan.

And the first thing Kelsey did was text Megan’s security guy “Help. Tory shot Meg. 911”

‘The defense is asking you to believe that Kelsey shot Megan that night.

‘Are these the actions of a woman who just shot Megan…where she’s framing the defendant within five minutes of the shooting.

‘Would Megan be sitting next to her best friend in the back of the car if she had just shot her?’

He added that the defense ‘cannot defend the evidence in this case so they are resorting to intimidation and manipulation.’

As for Tuesday’s startling witness Sean Kelly – whose home overlooks the spot where the shooting happened, Bott said, ‘He never ever said he saw a gun in Kelsey’s hand. He just said he saw her near the muzzle flash.’

Talking about Kylie Jenner pool party Megan, Kelsey and Lanez were at before the shooting, Bott asked, ‘Do you really think that Megan or Kelsey brought a loaded 9mm firearm with them to a pool party? Does that make sense to you.’

Rounding up his closing, Bott told the jury, ‘This is a case about a guy whom shot a girl. People saw it and then he apologized for it. That’s the case. Hold the defendant accountable – find him guilty.’

‘It’s time to find the defendant accountable for his crimes,’ Deputy District Attorney Alex Bott told the jury at the start of the prosecution’s closing argument.

He asked jurors to recall Megan Thee Stallion’s ‘vulnerable, raw and emotional’ testimony in court last week when she recounted how Lanez had yelled ‘Dance b***h‘, then shot at her five times, wounding her feet.

‘Why would she come in here and lie about what happened to her? asked Bott, adding that since telling her story to authorities, she has suffered ‘fallout’ from the ‘hip-hop boys club’ and been subject to a ‘stream of hate and negativity online.

After she came out and said Tory shot her, he went on, ‘every man in a position of power’ in the music business ‘took Tory’s side’ and have been ‘giving her hell’ for nearly three years.

’Why would she lie – look what it’s done to her career and her life?’ said Bott.

‘If you believe Megan and what she said in court ….the case is over. If you believe Megan, that’s enough.’