Tory Lanez has pleaded with the judge overseeing his motion for a new trial in the Megan Thee Stallion shooting case not to “ruin my life.”
The Canadian rapper was in court in Los Angeles on Monday (May 8) for a hearing about his motion for a new trial, which he filed in late March following his guilty verdict in December.
AD LOADING...
A jury agreed with the prosecution’s theory that Tory (real name Daystar Peterson) fired multiple shots at Megan during a drunken dispute outside of Kylie Jenner’s Hollywood Hills home in July 2020, wounding her feet.
Tory’s lawyers, Matthew Barhoma and Jose Baez, presented their case in front of Judge David Herriford, arguing that the rapper’s previous defense attorney, George Mgdesyan, was “ineffective counsel” and that Tory’s DNA wasn’t discovered on the gun.
AD LOADING...
According to Law&Crime reporter Meghann Cuniff, their supplement to the motion pointed out that Lanez’s initial attorney, Shawn Holley, had to step aside due to scheduling conflicts, which pushed Mgdesyan into the trial with little time to prepare.
The supplement was sealed because Barhoma and Baez said it deals with attorney-client privilege issues, but they indicated they were open to waiving that privilege. Judge Herriford warned them about doing so as “there’s some stuff in there they really might not want in the public realm,” Cuniff tweeted.
As for the DNA argument, Lanez recently revealed that Baez had “hired one of the best DNA experts in the nation to carefully analyze the same DNA test,” and found that his DNA “is 100 percent excluded and 100 percent eliminated from the gun.” The DNA test came back “inconclusive” during the trial.
The judge, however, asked Barhoma and Baez why no one objected to the DNA during the trial. Barhoma answered by saying Holley told the court she was in the process of hiring her own DNA expert, but “that turned out to be false.” An expert wasn’t hired for another eight months and “was not adequately prepared,” Baez claimed.
AD LOADING...
According to Los Angeles Times‘ James Queally, Tory’s chances of being granted a new trial look slim as Judge Herriford repeatedly noted Baez did not make an ineffective counsel argument about Mgdesyan in his new trial motion, meaning it can’t be considered in court.
The judge also indicated his intention to reject arguments about inadmissible evidence because Mgdesyan failed to object to them at trial.
Before being led out of the courtroom in handcuffs, Tory pleaded with Judge Herriford to give him another shot at freedom. “Please don’t ruin my life. I could be your son. I could be your brother,” he told the judge (who is Black). Herriford didn’t say anything back.
The judge is expected to rule on Tory Lanez’s motion for a new trial when court resumes on Tuesday morning (May 9).
AD LOADING...
If his motion is rejected, Lanez can still appeal his conviction and “may actually have an argument, especially re: ineffective counsel,” Queally tweeted. “But the bar for a verdict to be set aside before sentencing is incredibly high.”
