Tory Lanez’s lawyers are seeking to get their client released on probation and placed into a drug treatment program when he’s sentenced next week for shooting Megan Thee Stallion.
According to Law&Crime reporter Meghann Cuniff, the rapper’s attorneys, Jose Baez and Ed Welbourn, filed a 41-page memo on Tuesday (August 1) in which they claim their client was suffering from alcoholism at the time of the alleged shooting and his culpability was therefore reduced.
The memo, which includes a report from a psychologist who met with Tory (real name Daystar Peterson) in jail last month, details his traumatic childhood — including the violence, abuse, grief and neglect he experienced growing up — that contributed to him developing an alcohol problem.
It cites the death of his mother when he was 11 years old, his stint living with three of his brother’s friends “in an area that was ‘crack infested’ and plagued by violence” after bouncing around relatives, and his brushes with death after being stabbed and shot at as a teen.
Even after breaking into the music industry, it claims, Tory continued to use alcohol and marijuana “as a means of coping with stress and unresolved traumas from his childhood.”
Despite questioning the evidence in the case that helped convict Lanez on all three counts last December, his lawyers argue that “assuming the allegations in this case are true,” his alcohol-use-disorder played a “significant role in the commission of the offense.”
The memo also highlights Tory’s charitable and community efforts and argues he “presents a low risk for violent recidivism in the community.”
“It’s an interesting mix of ‘I’m innocent, but assuming I’m guilty, it’s because my alcoholism is a mental disorder,'” Cuniff tweeted, providing more context to the memo.
In the filing, Baez and Wilbourn acknowledge that Tory Lanez is “presumptively ineligible for probation” because jurors found true two aggravating circumstances: that he fired a weapon and that he inflicted great bodily harm on Megan Thee Stallion when he shot her in the feet in July 2020.
However, California law allows for exceptions in unusual cases, and they claim Lanez’s case “is an unusual case in which the interests of justice would best be served if Mr. Peterson is granted probation.”
In the event that Judge David Herriford rejects their probation request, Baez and Wilbourn are asking for their client to receive the lower term of three years in prison, which they say aligns with Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón’s policies.
The prosecution had previously recommended Tory serve 13 years behind bars, claiming he “demonstrated a high level of callousness” and “high degree of indifference for human life” when he allegedly shot Megan.
They also cited the rapper’s online posts and statements which “re-traumatized his victim” and “emboldened his followers.”
Tory Lanez will learn his fate at 10:30 a.m. on Monday (August 7) when he’s sentenced at the criminal courthouse in downtown Los Angeles.
Only Tory Lames the wack canuc could come up with an excuse like this 😀 this fake gangsta seriously suggests ”drunk people should be allowed to shoot women”.
I Think he is just terrified of being made a dik muppet in prison.
Send his ass back to Canada… We know how to deal with these waste bins on the low! You won’t even know a mothafuka missing… He be in nunavut and shit… But you’ll find his foot washed up in Alaska… You American suckers have no clue how we do with these clowns lol
here we have a man pleading for his freedom. possibly 13 years in jail. he wants 3 years and rehabiliation. i can’t see how 13 years is going to help anybody i think its a better idea. poor bastard be lenient on him give him what he wants.
He shot a woman, continues to deny it, and keeps making albums denying he did it. This isn’t even his first violent offense either. That man deserves all 13 of them years. There are rehab programs in some prisons anyways. Lock this short clown up.
Witnesses said it was an accidental shooting at best
Being a drunk who likes to shoot at people when drunk isn’t an excuse to let him out early.
The best place to deal with alcoholism is prison.
Nobody wants to be drinking pruno.