Talking on to the choose for the primary time throughout his felony assault trial in Los Angeles, Tory Lanez declined to testify in his personal protection on Wednesday.
The transfer adopted after prosecutors mentioned that they had a stockpile of potential impeachment proof lined up towards the rapper charged with taking pictures Megan Thee Stallion in each toes throughout an alcohol-fueled battle on a residential road within the Hollywood Hills on July 12, 2020.
The proposed proof included Lanez’s alleged assault of fellow musician August Alsina in September, which the choose beforehand excluded, in addition to music video by which Lanez performs a butcher chopping up horse meat, and Lanez’s prior “lies about how tall he’s,” Deputy District Lawyer Alexander Bott advised the courtroom late Tuesday.
“I cannot testify,” Lanez, whose authorized title is Daystar Peterson, advised Decide David Herriford shortly earlier than either side rested and opening statements started Wednesday afternoon.
Prosecutors targeted a lot of their afternoon closing argument on Megan Thee Stallion’s emotional testimony delivered final week, by which the Grammy winner recounted listening to Peterson say “Dance, bitch” earlier than opening fireplace with a semiautomatic 9mm pistol.
Megan, 27, was struck by a number of bullet fragments throughout the roadside assault, a physician testified throughout the trial. Megan’s former finest good friend Kelsey Harris and Peterson’s driver Jauquan Smith have been current for the incident, however solely Harris took the witness stand.
“This can be a case a few man who shot a woman, folks noticed it, after which he apologized for it,” Bott advised the jury, arguing that Peterson, 30, unloaded the weapon over “nothing greater than a bruised ego.”
Peterson’s protection lawyer George Mgdeseyan advised jurors his consumer had a proper to not testify. He then urged the panel to reject all of Megan’s testimony on the idea she “lied” when she initially advised police she stepped on glass and later denied having been intimate with Lanez previous to the taking pictures.
Peterson has pleaded not responsible to a few felony costs within the high-profile case: assault with a firearm inflicting nice bodily damage; possessing a hid, loaded and unregistered firearm in a automobile; and the not too long ago added rely 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.
“Should you consider Megan, that’s sufficient,” Bott mentioned after opening his argument with harrowing quotes from Megan’s trial testimony that he projected on a display.
“If I might have recognized that popping out and talking my fact would include folks agreeing with me (that) I used to be shot… I wouldn’t have began to lose my confidence, lose my pals, lose myself. I didn’t ask for this. I didn’t need to come about it within the first place. I began to really feel like, rattling, perhaps I needs to be useless,” Megan mentioned within the strains additionally learn by Bott to the jury.
“You understand what? Megan did discover the braveness to return out,” Bott mentioned. “She did discover the braveness to (say) what the defendant did to her, and after greater than two years of this torture, it’s lastly time for you, members of the jury, to seek out the defendant responsible.”
He then walked jurors by way of the “layers” of proof that make up the prosecution’s case, highlighting the “vital” textual content message that Harris despatched to Megan’s bodyguard Justin Edison inside 5 minutes of the 911 name in regards to the gunfire.
“Assist / Tory shot meg / 911” the textual content bubbles from Harris to Edison present throughout the trial learn.
“She was solely excited about Megan at the moment,” Bott mentioned. “I simply need to cease right here for a second. The protection is asking you to consider that Kelsey Harris shot Megan that evening, then was comforting her and (held) Megan’s legs bleeding on her.” He reminded jurors Harris had been consuming closely within the hours prior.
“Are these the actions of a woman who simply shot Megan. Inside 5 minutes of the taking pictures she sends this textual content message. Is Kelsey some form of refined felony mastermind I didn’t learn about, the place she’s framing the defendant inside 5 minutes?” he requested. “The protection doesn’t make sense.”
As regards to Harris’ about-face on the witness stand final week, the place she disavowed statements implicating Peterson that she gave to prosecutors throughout a recorded interview final September, Bott mentioned, “one thing spooked her, somebody obtained to her, perhaps she took a kind of bribes.” (Throughout her September assertion, Harris recalled Peterson providing her and Megan $1 million to remain quiet in regards to the taking pictures.)
“Kelsey is available in and pours her coronary heart out,” he argued, saying he and fellow prosecutor, Kathy Ta, “barely” spoke throughout the 80-minute interview attended by Harris’ husband in particular person and two of her legal professionals on the telephone.
Bott additionally targeted on the jail name that Peterson made to Harris about 5 hours after the taking pictures at 9:05 a.m. He mentioned it takes “psychological gymnastics” to interpret the decision as something aside from an apology for wounding Megan.
“The protection will say he by no means admits to doing the taking pictures. Proper. He’s on a recorded line.”
He mentioned Harris was outdoors the hospital the place Megan was being handled however couldn’t enter because of strict Covid restrictions on the time.
“The primary name he makes in custody is to Kelsey. What’s on the forefront of his thoughts? The occasion that put Megan within the hospital. He says, ‘Yo, bro, regardless, I do know she’s most likely by no means ever gonna ever discuss to me ever once more. I simply need you to know, I used to be simply so fucking drunk. I didn’t even know what was happening,’” Bott advised jurors, studying from the decision transcript.
Bott requested jurors if it was believable that Peterson was simply speaking a few “romantic entanglement” involving himself and the 2 ladies, particularly contemplating a subsequent line within the name transcript the place Peterson says, “I don’t even keep in mind what we was even arguing about.”
When the prosecutor turned to neighborhood witness Sean Kelly, he mentioned Kelly, the one impartial witness known as to the stand, recalled seeing Peterson with an object in his arms, “shouting a torrent of abuse” and firing photographs that triggered a lady to “fall in the midst of the road bleeding.”
Bott mentioned even when jurors consider Kelly’s testimony that an preliminary muzzle flash appeared to return from one of many ladies, they may nonetheless convict Peterson.
“If anyone thinks, regardless of the proof, that they’ve a whiff of an concept that Kelsey shot a spherical, although Mr. Kelly by no means says that, this trial is about what the defendant did. Kelsey Harris shouldn’t be on trial. It’s about what the defendant did. And Sean Kelly clearly states that the defendant fired rounds on the sufferer,” Bott mentioned.
In his dueling closing argument that can proceed Thursday, Mgdesyan mentioned the prosecution’s case was “filled with holes,” requiring “hypothesis” on the a part of the jury.
He questioned why prosecutors didn’t name Kelly as their very own witness and argued it wasn’t till Kelly obtained on the stand as a part of the protection case that he reported for the primary time that he noticed Peterson taking pictures.
The protection lawyer additional attacked Megan’s testimony, saying the “Savage” singer modified her description of which route she walked in when she exited the automobile as a result of if she had walked southbound as an alternative of northbound, and if Peterson had been in a rear passenger seat, there wouldn’t have been an open door for him to shoot over, as she described. (Throughout testimony Wednesday, LAPD Det. Ryan Stogner mentioned he didn’t recall Megan particularly telling him she began strolling southbound earlier than the gunfire erupted.)
“Megan Pete is a liar,” Mgdesyan argued Wednesday.
He mentioned Megan and Harris obtained right into a violent battle when Peterson revealed he’d been romantic with each ladies, and that Peterson was attempting to seize the gun away from Harris after she fired the primary shot.
“My consumer was attempting to save lots of the Black girl they’re speaking about,” Mgdesyan argued.
The protection lawyer requested why the choose allowed Harris to invoke her 5th Modification proper towards self-incrimination if she was an harmless bystander who additionally was assaulted by Peterson, as prosecutors allege. That call by the choose led prosecutors to supply Harris a “use immunity” deal that meant something she mentioned on the stand couldn’t be used towards her in a potential future felony case.
“(And) why not give her transactional immunity?” Mgdesyan requested, referring to the upper stage of immunity that Harris sought however was denied. Transactional immunity would have allowed her to testify with none jeopardy of ever being charged with something associated to the taking pictures.
“Kelsey was upset her good friend was not being loyal,” Mgdesyan argued, saying the textual content she despatched to Megan’s bodyguard 5 minutes after the taking pictures was “self-serving.”
The protection lawyer is anticipated to complete his closing argument Thursday morning. Prosecutors are set to present a rebuttal, after which jurors are because of start deliberating.
On Tuesday, Bott advised the courtroom that if Peterson took the stand and opened the door to his felony historical past or statements about his relationship with Megan, prosecutors have been able to confront the “Luv” singer together with his beforehand excluded social media posts, rap lyrics, his connection to Megan’s Houston file label 1501 Leisure and his prior brushes with regulation enforcement.
The jurors already heard that Peterson was arrested in Florida in 2017 and positioned on a diversion program that was terminated in April 2017.
However they by no means heard in regards to the alleged assault on August Alsina or that Peterson allegedly punched “Love & Hip Hop” star Prince Michael Harty in Florida final yr.
Concerning the video for Peterson’s diss observe “Cap,” by which he performs the function of a butcher slicing up a horse leg, Bott mentioned the track “is clearly directed at Megan.” Bott additional mentioned Peterson’s “lies” about his peak may have been fodder for cross-examination associated to the rapper’s “credibility.”