Court won’t allow new evidence in Tory Lanez’s shooting appeal

Tory Lanez’s attempt to submit new evidence and challenge his 2022 felony conviction has collapsed.

Lanez, whose legal name is Daystar Peterson, brought forward two petitions in his case, which concerns the 2020 shooting of hip-hop artist Megan Thee Stallion. According to Complex, one involved Peterson’s driver not testifying and the other sought to bring forward a new statement from a security guard for Kelsey Harris, the victim’s former best friend. Both were subsequently denied Tuesday by the California Court of Appeals.

Peterson’s legal team alleged at a press conference in May that Bradley Jennings, who was working as a bodyguard and driver for Harris, approached them and said he had witnessed a conversation in which Harris said “she had the gun, she fired it three times, Mr. Peterson grabbed her arm and knocked it down, and the gun fired two more times.”

An attorney for Lanez added, “In essence, Mr. Peterson never shot anybody.”

Megan Thee Stallion’s team was quick to respond, issuing a statement the next day.

“Tory Lanez was tried and convicted by a jury of his peers and his case was properly adjudicated through the court system,” they wrote, per XXL Magazine. “This is not a political matter — this is a case of a violent assault that was resolved in the court of law.”

Peterson is serving a 10-year sentence after being convicted of assault with a firearm, possession of a concealed firearm and negligent discharge of a gun. He has an active main appeal set for oral argument Aug. 18.

This is not the first time the 30-year-old rapper has seen his efforts to revive the case shot down. In May 2023, a Los Angeles Superior Court judge denied his motion for a new trial.

Judge David Herriford rejected arguments from Peterson’s defense team, which claimed that evidence had been wrongly submitted in the December 2022 trial he presided over. “I could be your son. I could be your brother,” the rapper pleaded, but to no avail.

Three months later, in August 2023, he received his 10-year sentence.