Her voice cracking with emotion, Megan Thee Stallion seemed straight forward and held her composure Tuesday as she informed jurors that Tory Lanez shouted, “Dance, bitch!” earlier than taking pictures her in each ft throughout a roadside assault in July 2020.
Wearing a vivid purple go well with, The “Savage” rapper took the witness stand round 11:15 a.m. and instantly recognized Lanez within the Los Angeles courtroom.
“Are you nervous?” Los Angeles Deputy District Legal professional Kathy Ta requested the Grammy winner.
“I simply don’t really feel good. I can’t consider I’ve to come back up right here and do that,” Megan replied.
Over greater than three hours of harrowing testimony, Megan described her “terrified” response to the taking pictures within the predawn hours of July 12, 2020, and the worry and confusion that adopted. She admitted she lied to investigators and media shops when she beforehand denied having been “intimate” with Lanez. She defined to jurors that the non-exclusive relationship left her feeling “embarrassed,” and in the end, she thought of it irrelevant to the precise taking pictures that landed her a hospital.
“This complete story was about who I’m having intercourse with, and I don’t perceive why that issues,” she mentioned, shutting down protection ideas that it was her former best-friend Kelsey Harris who shot her in a jealous rage. Megan was adamant Lanez was the triggerman.
“Tory got here out and informed so many alternative lies, about me not being shot, about him not being the shooter, and making this all a few intercourse scandal,” she testified. The following ordeal led to a barrage of threats and harassment on-line, she mentioned, and left her feeling like a “sick chicken” that different members of her trade sought to keep away from.
“As a result of I used to be shot, I’ve been changed into some sort of villain, and he’s the sufferer. This has tousled my complete life,” she mentioned, including that she typically will get “depressed” about the way in which she’s “being shamed” on-line.
At her lowest she thought, “I want he would have simply shot and killed me (reasonably than) need to undergo this torture,” Megan informed the jury.
In her sworn account of the hours main as much as the taking pictures, Megan claimed Lanez, whose actual title is Daystar Peterson, met her at a pool celebration at Kylie Jenner’s home and at first refused to hitch her when she introduced she was able to go dwelling. She mentioned when he lastly agreed to depart so she and Harris may hitch a experience along with his driver, he “had an perspective.”
“We lastly all obtained within the automobile and left,” she mentioned, naming Peterson, Peterson’s driver Jauquan Smith, and Harris because the passengers within the Cadillac Escalade.
“He had an perspective as a result of he wasn’t prepared to depart the celebration,” she testified, saying she was within the entrance seat whereas Harris and Peterson sat within the again. Virtually instantly, Peterson tried to fire up controversy between the 2 girls, she mentioned.
“Tory says, ‘It’s worthwhile to cease mendacity to your good friend.’ He had an perspective, and for no matter purpose, he mentioned, ‘It’s worthwhile to cease mendacity to your good friend,’” Megan recalled. She mentioned Peterson was referring to their sexual historical past collectively, which Harris didn’t find out about on the time.
“As a result of I knew Kelsey had a crush on Tory, I didn’t need to harm her emotions, and I didn’t need her to know that I had handled him in any sort of means. So he knew I didn’t need her to know that. I didn’t need anyone to know,” she testified. “Now Kelsey obtained an perspective as a result of he was implying we have been hiding one thing from her.”
Megan, 27, mentioned Peterson began calling each girls “bitches” and “hoes,” so she requested to be set free of the automobile on Sundown Boulevard.
“I notice, oh my god, I’m actually on the peak of being so well-known proper now, and I’m in a thong (bikini), and I look loopy, and if anyone sees me strolling down the road like this, it’s going to be dangerous for me,” she testified.
Megan mentioned she obtained again within the car, the place Peterson and Harris have been screaming at one another on the “prime of their lungs.” After Smith turned down a facet avenue and so they approached Megan’s home, she requested to get out of the automobile once more. She mentioned Peterson had disparaged her rap profession, so she disparaged his in return, inflicting him to turn into even angrier.
“Tory was mainly telling me I wasn’t shit, and I mentioned, ‘Really, You ain’t shit. That is the place you at in your profession. That is the place you at along with your music.’ And I really feel like that basically rubbed him the improper means. He saved yelling and cursing,” she mentioned.
“I begin strolling away from the automobile, and I can hear Tory say, ‘Dance, bitch!’ I don’t have to show all the way in which round. I didn’t have to make use of my ft to show round,” she testified, displaying for the jury how she turned her head with out turning her total physique. “I actually turned like this, and I may see him with the gun.”
Peterson’s lawyer George Mgdesyan objected at this level, however the decide let the reply stay on the file. (Megan’s major damage was close to the again of her left foot, main the protection to say she was dealing with away from the shooter when the gunfire erupted and didn’t have vantage level to establish who was holding the semiautomatic 9mm handgun.)
Megan repeated that she noticed “Tory with the gun” after which “froze.”
“I’m in shock. I’m scared. I hear a gun going off. I couldn’t consider he was taking pictures at me,” she testified. “He was holding the gun, pointing it at me.”
Megan mentioned she dropped to the bottom and crawled to a close-by driveway. “I seemed down at my ft, and I see all of the blood,” she mentioned. “Now all people’s screaming. He seemed shocked. Kelsey seemed shocked.”
Megan mentioned all the pieces began to get “blurry” after that, however she recalled Peterson “apologizing” within the automobile once they heard the police sirens.
“He’s saying, ‘Please don’t say something. I’ll give y’all one million {dollars}. I can’t go to jail. I already obtained caught with a gun earlier than,’” she testified.
Quickly after that, Megan mentioned she lied to the police and informed them that she stepped on glass. Requested why she didn’t inform the reality, Megan mentioned her reasoning was two-fold.
“This was the peak of police brutality and George Floyd, and if I mentioned this man simply shot me, I didn’t know if they could shoot first and ask questions later,” she testified. Past that, “Within the Black group, in my group, it’s not likely acceptable to be cooperating with law enforcement officials.”
She additionally mentioned, “As a lady” within the music trade, “individuals have a tough time believing you anyway.”
Peterson, 30, listened quietly all through Megan’s testimony, taking copious notes. Seated behind him within the gallery was his 6-year-old son, wearing a go well with.
The “Luv” singer has pleaded not responsible to 3 felony fees within the high-profile case: assault with a firearm inflicting nice bodily damage; concealing a loaded, unregistered firearm in a car; and the lately added depend of discharging a firearm with gross negligence.
If convicted as charged, the Alone at Promenade rapper is dealing with the opportunity of 22 years and eight months in jail and subsequent deportation since he’s a citizen of Canada.
In opening statements Monday, prosecutors revealed for the primary time that Harris is predicted to corroborate a lot of Megan’s testimony when she’s known as the stand later this week.
“Kelsey will let you know that she simply noticed her shut good friend get shot by the defendant,” Los Angeles County Deputy District Legal professional Alexander Bott beforehand informed jurors, including that Harris rushed to Megan’s facet as she lay bleeding in a random driveway. Bott mentioned Harris will testify she freaked out when Lanez approached the 2 girls after he fired 5 photographs.
“Kelsey, she’ll let you know she didn’t know if the defendant nonetheless had this gun. She didn’t know what the defendant was able to, if he was going to proceed his assault. Her defensive instincts kicked into gear, and she or he approached the defendant. She’ll let you know the defendant bodily assaulted her at that time. He pulled her by her hair, and he both punched her or slapped her.”
In response to Bott, Harris additionally despatched three textual content messages to Megan’s bodyguard Justin Edison within the 5 minutes following the taking pictures.
“Assist,” Harris texted Edison at 4:27 a.m. on July 12, 2020, in accordance with a visible of the textual content chain proven on a display within the courtroom. “Tory Shot Meg,” the following line learn. “911,” the third bubble learn.
In his dueling opening assertion, protection lawyer Mgdesyan urged jurors to maintain an “open thoughts.” He mentioned nobody past Megan reported listening to the “Dance, bitch” line, and he mentioned a neighbor who purportedly witnessed a number of the incident from a close-by balcony reported seeing a muzzle flash closest to the non-victim feminine. (Prosecutors have mentioned they received’t be calling the neighbor as a result of he gave conflicting statements, together with saying at one level that he was woken up by the sound of gunshots.)
On Monday, Mgdesyan mentioned the alcohol-fueled battle began when Megan purportedly grew to become “jealous” that Peterson was spending time with Jenner within the pool and didn’t need to go away her home. He mentioned Kris Jenner’s boyfriend Corey Gamble was a witness to a number of the celebration and can be known as to testify.
Mgdesyan informed jurors Harris grew to become enraged when Peterson revealed he had been intimate with Megan. In statements to the court docket final week, Mgdesyan mentioned the protection plans to current proof Harris may have been the one to discharge the gun. Prosecutors sought to bar Mgdesyan from saying Harris was the shooter.
In his opening assertion, Mgdesyan informed jurors that after former LAPD lead investigator Det. Ryan Stogner discovered Harris and Peterson each examined optimistic for gunshot residue, he failed to check the firearm for Harris’ DNA or fingerprints. “Detective Stogner didn’t assume it was necessary,” the lawyer mentioned. “We’ll by no means know” what such testing would have proven “as a result of the detective on this case refused to do it,” he mentioned
Bott, in the meantime, mentioned Peterson made a recorded jail name to Harris that was tantamount to a confession. He mentioned Peterson additionally tried to clean issues over with Megan in a textual content message that learn, “I do know u prolly by no means gone speak to me once more, however I genuinely need u to know I’m sorry from the underside of my coronary heart. I used to be simply too drunk. Nonetheless, shit ought to have by no means occurred, and I can’t change what did. I simply really feel horrible as a result of I genuinely simply obtained too drunk.”
Bott mentioned that at some point later, at about 3:30 p.m., Edison visited Peterson’s residence to retrieve a few of Megan’s belongings. He mentioned the bodyguard will testify that Peterson basically confessed he was the shooter.
“Justin will let you know that the defendant admitted a lot of what he admitted within the name and the textual content, that he was the triggerman that night time, that he did the taking pictures. However he mentioned he was simply taking pictures within the air, and taking pictures on the floor. However importantly, he informed Justin he was the one who fired the gun,” Bott mentioned.
Chatting with Rolling Stone for a canopy story earlier this yr, Megan mentioned she was pals with Peterson on the time of the taking pictures, however they weren’t an official couple.
“That man was by no means my ex… by no means my man,” she mentioned. Nonetheless, she believed on the time of the taking pictures that she shared “an actual connection” with Peterson as a result of they’d bonded over shedding their moms.
“I assumed he knew me. And I by no means would’ve thought he would’ve shot at me in any respect,” she mentioned.
“I by no means put my palms on this man,” she mentioned. “I by no means did something to him. There was an argument. Folks argue each day. Buddies argue each day.”
She questioned why Peterson has been “dragging it out like this.”
“Have you ever hated me this a lot the entire time and I didn’t see it?’” she mentioned in her interview with Conteh. “I need him to go to jail,” she added. “I need him to go beneath the jail.”