Over eight days of testimony, the small print of a struggle between rappers Megan Thee Stallion and Tory Lanez have unfurled in a Los Angeles courtroom. In 2020, Lanez allegedly shot Megan within the ft as an argument between the 2 escalated. On the time, Megan’s star was already on the rise, and the tabloid-ready circumstances–the altercation came about in Hollywood Hills after a pool celebration at Kylie Jenner’s residence–helped gasoline greater than two years of combative dialogue on social media. Megan’s profession has scaled additional heights within the years because the incident, and when she appeared on the trial final week to testify on behalf of the prosecution, supporters stood outdoors the courthouse with indicators studying “I Stand With Megan.” Lanez has pleaded not responsible on the gun and assault expenses he faces over the alleged capturing. On Wednesday, he declined to testify as his protection crew rested its case.
Delivering his closing remarks on Wednesday, prosecutor Alexander Bott sought to refocus among the chaos. “In the event you consider Megan and what she stated final Tuesday, this case is over,” he advised the jury, as Regulation & Crime reported. “We’re completed. In the event you consider Megan, that is sufficient.” Megan’s testimony final week largely echoed the account of the alleged capturing she has given on social media and in interviews. “Tory was mainly telling me I wasn’t shit,” she advised jurors, “and I stated, ‘Really, You ain’t shit. That is the place you at in your profession.” Megan claimed that as she exited the SUV they have been in, Lanez stated “Dance, bitch!” and started capturing at her.
The trial proceedings have typically been scattered and contradictory. Prosecutors stated Megan’s former bodyguard Justin Edison would testify, however he by no means appeared, and authorities couldn’t monitor him down in time for the case’s conclusion. Megan’s former good friend and assistant Kelsey Harris, who was current within the SUV on the night time of the alleged capturing, testified that she by no means noticed Lanez with a gun, however prosecutors performed a recording of an announcement she had beforehand made to them through which she stated Lanez was the shooter. Lanez’s lawyer George Mgdesyan stated in his opening assertion {that a} romantic quarrel between Megan and Harris over Lanez ran parallel to arguments that they had had over the rapper DaBaby and the Brooklyn Nets participant Ben Simmons, however these purported conflicts didn’t come up in testimony.
In information stories, Megan’s personal testimony rang the loudest, particularly because it associated to the backlash she stated she acquired after going public with the alleged capturing. In his closing assertion on Wednesday, Bott quoted from Megan’s testimony: “If I might have recognized that popping out and talking my fact would include folks agreeing with me being shot, if I might have recognized, I might have began to lose my confidence.”
“Megan Pete is a liar,” Mgdesyan stated throughout his closing assertion on Wednesday, utilizing the rapper’s beginning title, in response to Regulation & Crime. “She lied about every little thing on this case.” Mgdesyan requested why Megan hadn’t publicly shared that she’d had intercourse with Lanez. Citing the rapper’s Grammys and Billboard chart achievements, he stated that Lanez had the truth is gotten the worst of the backlash. “ who it’s been unhealthy for?” Mgdesyan stated, pointing at Lanez. “That man proper there.”
Mgdesyan acknowledged that Megan had been shot on the night time in query, so he tried to sway jurors in direction of the idea that Harris was the shooter. He repeatedly pointed to Harris’s invocations of her Fifth Modification rights, in response to Regulation & Crime, as a means of arguing that she was overlaying for herself. Bott addressed Harris’s contradictory statements in his remarks on Wednesday: “One thing occurred to Kelsey.”
“Possibly she took a kind of bribes,” he reportedly went on—a reference to Megan’s testimony final week that Lanez provided her and Harris $1 million to not say something in regards to the alleged capturing. (In her testimony, Harris denied taking a bribe.)
A jury started deliberating after the closing statements. Lanez faces greater than 22 years in jail if convicted on all counts.
