A California appellate court on Wednesday denied rapper Tory Lanez’s appeal of his 2022 guilty verdict for shooting Megan Thee Stallion, affirming the three felony convictions that landed him a 10-year prison sentence.
According to The Associated Press, a three-judge panel from the California 2nd District Court of Appeal ruled to uphold Lanez’s conviction in full, though the court has not publicly released its reasoning.
Lanez, whose legal name is Daystar Peterson, was convicted in December 2022 on charges of assault with a semiautomatic firearm, having a loaded, unregistered firearm in a vehicle, and discharging a firearm with gross negligence.
The case stems from an incident in July 2020, after Lanez and Megan Thee Stallion left a party at Kylie Jenner’s Hollywood Hills home.
According to Megan’s testimony during the trial, Lanez fired a gun at the back of her feet while demanding she dance, as she walked away from an SUV they had been riding in along with two other people.
The shooting left Megan with bullet fragments in both feet, which required surgical removal. She publicly identified Lanez as the shooter months later.
Lanez’s attorneys did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Wednesday’s ruling. They may petition the California Supreme Court to hear the appeal. Representatives for Megan Thee Stallion also did not respond to a request for comment.
Lanez is currently serving his sentence at the California Men’s Colony near San Luis Obispo, having been transferred there after being stabbed by a fellow inmate at the California Correctional Institution in Tehachapi.
Details of the attack were not fully disclosed, but a post on Lanez’s Instagram reported he was stabbed 14 times, resulting in both lungs collapsing.
The 32-year-old Canadian rapper first began releasing mixtapes in 2009 and gained popularity with several major-label albums, including two that reached the top 10 on the Billboard charts.
Despite his career success, the shooting incident and subsequent conviction have become the defining moments of his public life, now solidified with the appellate court’s decision to uphold the verdict.
