‘It cost her too much’: Tory Lanez’s fate is in the hands of the jury after final payment from plaintiffs
Tory Lanez W His “enormous ego” couldn’t handle being disrespected and abandoned by Megan Thee Stallion on the edge of a California sidewalk two years ago, so he opened fire with a semi-automatic handgun, hit Megan in both feet and then began to silently “manipulate” her, the prosecutor said Thursday in a filing. its closing argument.
Meanwhile, Lenz’s defense attorney used his last speech to the jury to impugn Meghan’s credibility. He also tried to convince jurors that the lack of DNA conclusively linking Lenz to the 9mm handgun at his feet was enough to acquit the “Love” singer on reasonable suspicion.
After hearing summaries of the duel, a jury of five men and seven women deliberated for three hours Thursday and agreed to resume on Friday rather than wait until the end of the weekend.
Lenz pleaded not guilty to felony assault with a firearm. concealing a loaded and unregistered gun in a vehicle; and discharging a firearm grossly negligently. He faces up to 22 years in prison and deportation to Canada if he is convicted of the charges.
Los Angeles Deputy Attorney General Kathy Ta had the final word in her rebuttal argument Thursday morning, telling jurors she hoped something Meghan said during her testimony last week “resonated” with them.
“There isn’t a day that goes by that someone doesn’t call me a liar or doesn’t shame me for being a mature woman and having sex. This whole story wasn’t about the shooting, it’s just about who the fuck was,” Meghan said in the testimony, which was shown on screen and read aloud by the prosecutor. Tori has sex with him.
Ta then slammed Linz’s defense attorney, George Majdisian, for “name-dropping” the closing argument of two other high-profile men who he claimed had some sort of sexual relationship with Meghan.
He said that this case concerned sexual relations. this is not true. This case was always about shooting,” Tat said. Why did the defense do this? He wants to play on old prejudices and prejudices. But you’re all better than that.”
She said the case was “not about anyone’s sexuality” and urged the jury to consider the evidence and sworn testimony. She said it was Lenz’s “ego” that led to the shooting. “(Meghan) disrespected his rapping. She insults him as a rapper, and that pissed him off. He had a huge ego and couldn’t handle the disrespect. How dare she walk away from him. So he reasserted his dominance. He was going to show it to her.”
During her harrowing role on the witness stand, Meghan’s violent reaction to the shooting turned from victim to “vicious” and left her feeling suicidal at times. It also affected her relationship with her boyfriend, Bardison Fontaine, she said, causing her to feel anxious and ashamed of what he might encounter online.
In a message he posted to his Instagram Stories Thursday, Fontaine expressed his support for women coming forward amid adversity.
“To any special woman of color who has suffered injustice, I feel it for you,” he wrote. “When you find the courage to speak up…it looks like you will be ridiculed…your credibility will be questioned…your entire past will be kept under a magnifying glass…in an instant you can go from victim to accused in the public eye…to anyone with a niece, niece or Aunt.. I pray for their protection.. I pray for their protection.. I would not wish this on anyone.”
Ta said Megan became complicit in the cover-up at the start of the investigation because Lenz was “manipulating” her and Kelsey Harris, Megan’s former best friend who was also present at the shooting.
According to Magdisian, Harris shot Megan after Lenz revealed that he had been sleeping with both women. Lenz allegedly made the statement during a drunken argument inside his Cadillac Escalade after a pool party at Kylie Jenner’s house.
“The whole defense theory is that the reason Meghan lied is because it was more appropriate from a PR perspective to say Tori was the shooter rather than Kelsey. Make that sense,” Ta challenged the jury, saying Meghan’s decision to finally come forward and name her assailant was very difficult. For her in the male-dominated rap industry.
“Every man in a position of power in the music industry, even people who aren’t even a rapper, have never cared which side of the story is what side of the story. Ta read it to the jury,” Meghan said in her testimony last week.
“He’s a fellow rapper in the industry. He has boy club support. It would have been easier for her to say, ‘My crazy assistant did this to me.’ It’s hard for her to stand up against the Tories,” Ta argued. “She had to think about it because She was worried about what it would cost her, and it cost her a lot.”
Ta then highlighted the three text messages Harris sent to Meghan’s bodyguard off the scene within five minutes of the shooting on July 12, 2020. She mocked the defense’s claim that Harris sent the texts — which read “Help/Tory shot meg/911” — to cover her tracks in an elaborate plot supported by Megan.
“Meghan basically has to be a sociopath to frame someone who didn’t shoot her for a subtle PR (move),” Ta said. “You have to believe in this idea that both people are framing someone, and they’re both criminal minds. It doesn’t make sense.”
She spoke with the defense chief about Meghan’s allegation that Meghan was lying when she testified that Lenz, whose legal name is Daystar Peterson, offered her $1 million and said he was “on probation” and afraid of going to jail as the sirens approached.
Magdisian was adamant that his client was not on probation at the time of the shooting and that the court-ordered diversion program in a separate Florida case ended in 2017.
“Whether or not he’s on watch in 2020 doesn’t matter. What matters is that he is Tell Megan was on probation because he was manipulating her,” said Ta. He’s trying to appeal to her sympathy. “I have a gun charge, I’m on probation, please don’t say anything. It’s a pattern of manipulation to get witnesses to cover everything up.”
Ta also focused heavily on Sean Kelly, the homeowner who testified this week that he looked out his bedroom window and witnessed the shooting. Kelly said he believed he saw an initial muzzle flash near one of the “girls” hands and then a volley of shots from Peterson.
“When he talks about Kelsey, it’s a little vague, he’s not entirely clear,” Ta argued on Thursday, saying Kelly’s claim that the first shot was aimed at the car was “impossible.”
“There is no physical evidence that a shooting took place inside the car. No shattered glass, no bullets, no casings, and no smell of gunpowder,” Ta said.
She urged jurors to take a closer look at Kelly’s testimony as they reviewed it carefully and determined that Kelly had become more specific when she spoke about Peterson.
“He was holding something, and it flashed and made a loud noise like a gun,” Kelly testified, according to a transcript shown on the screen by TA.
“You’ll never hear Sean Kelly say he saw Kelsey carrying something,” Ta argued. He said it twice about the accused.
On Thursday afternoon, jurors requested a full re-read of Kelly’s full testimony, apparently in response to TA’s request.
In his final words to the jury, Magdisian said his client also suffered in the aftermath of the shooting. It also painted Peterson as a victim of prejudice.
“The story fits better if a black man shoots a black woman. That’s what this case is about.”
Magdisian also used his argument to stress the fact that LAPD detectives never tested the gun for Harris’ DNA.
“Who is the only person they took DNA from? My client. Why? My client gives his DNA voluntarily, why? Why didn’t they take DNA from (the driver) or from Kelsey?” he asked.
He certified the fact that Peterson’s DNA was not found in the gun magazine and that testing on the gun also resulted in no terminal injury, which means the plaintiffs couldn’t say that.
“Is there no reasonable doubt about DNA per se?” he argued. “If Kelsey Harris’ DNA was on that gun, would we be here today?”
But Ta reminded the jury that Peterson’s DNA wasn’t ruled out either. Two experts testified that it was an inconclusive finding. The attorney general also addressed why Harris’ DNA was not tested.
By the time the DNA evidence was taken, there was already an obvious suspect in this case. We had a jail call. argue ta. “DNA is not a smoking gun. Sometimes it leads to something, sometimes it doesn’t. Here, it’s inconclusive. It doesn’t create reasonable doubt in and of itself.”
Ta and Magdisian both accused the other of failing to place the driver, Jaoquan Smith, on the witness stand. Smith was at the courthouse on Wednesday, but because he had never filed a statement earlier in the case, prosecutors requested a three-day stretch over the weekend to prepare. Majdisian said Rolling Stone The defense chose not to contact him, fearing that a delay would lead to a mistrial.
“Who is Jauquan?” Ta asked in her final conclusion. Quan is a Tory man. So when the defense raises this big issue about why people didn’t call him, ask yourself this: They have the power to call witnesses, just as we do. They could have called Quan, a Tory man, to support their defense that Kelsey shot Meg. Why didn’t they do that?”
She said jurors should focus on the evidence examined and acknowledged, including Peterson’s taped jail call to Harris on the morning of the shooting.
“Let’s say she’s the shooter, and at no point does he say, ‘Kelsey, what the hell happened?'” What were you doing?’ And this is allegedly someone who is looking for Meg. At no point in that call was it suggested that Kelsey did anything. “He’s the only one apologizing,” Ta said.
Ta also spoke about Harris’ stunning turn on the witness stand last week, disavowing a September 2022 recorded statement by prosecutors that identified Peterson as the operator. She suggested that Harris experienced “courtroom amnesia” due to an unknown outside influence.
“Think about what happened. She was clearly distraught. I saw the video of her arrest. She was crying and breathing heavily,” Ta said, skeptical of the idea that Harris sent texts to Meghan’s bodyguard, Justin Harris, to frame Peterson.
“So the idea that four minutes after the shooting, you text Justin — not the police — but Justin, that ‘Tori shot Meg’ to cover herself up, (that would be) playing four-dimensional chess,” Ta said. “She wouldn’t think two steps ahead but ten steps forward. … She wasn’t protecting herself, she was keeping stuff in the house, which is why she texted Justin, not the police.”
Concluding, Majdisian had a different explanation for why Harris was crying in her arrest video: “She’s the one who shot her friend. She’s upset, she’s crying because she realized what she did. That’s why she’s crying.”
The jurors left the courtroom at 4 p.m. PT after deliberating for three hours on Thursday and are scheduled to return on Friday.
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