As Tory Lanez serves his 10-year prison sentence for shooting Megan Thee Stallion in both feet back in July 2020, the rapper has been pursuing multiple avenues to try to overturn his conviction.
On Tuesday, an appellate court in California denied a pair of so-called writ of habeas corpus petitions that he filed in 2023 and 2024 to invalidate the jury’s verdict based on issues or evidence not presented during the trial. (Lanez’s separate direct appeal, which is based on what Los Angeles County jurors did hear during his December 2022 trial, is still pending with oral arguments set for Monday.)
In their rulings issued Tuesday, the same three-judge panel with California’s Second District Court of Appeal said Lanez’s “piecemeal” claims didn’t meet the requirements for habeas relief. In one petition, Lanez, whose legal name is Daystar Peterson, alleged that the firearm recovered in the case had “been misplaced and is currently missing,” depriving him of access. The judges said that simply wasn’t so. They pointed to a sworn statement from an LAPD officer that confirmed that the firearm, its magazine, and all the bullets and fragments collected as evidence remained in police custody.
The judges further noted that Peterson “failed to request further DNA testing in the trial court,” and that he also failed to explain how any further testing could prove his innocence. And if Peterson was referring to “the bullet fragments that surgeons removed from the victim’s feet,” they noted that “those are unlikely to have usable fingerprints or DNA.”
At trial, experts on both sides agreed that police testing of the magazine showed none of Peterson’s DNA was present. They also agreed that testing of the gun itself was inconclusive, meaning it could neither exclude nor include Peterson as a minor contributor to the DNA found on the firearm. Jurors heard that and still decided to convict Peterson based on testimony from Megan, a neighbor who witnessed the shooting, and a recorded statement from Megan’s former best friend, Kelsey Harris, who was with Megan when the shooting took place on a residential street after a party in the Hollywood Hills.
In their second ruling Tuesday, the appellate tribunal also denied Peterson’s habeas petition related to alleged new testimony in the case. In that effort, Peterson and his lawyers claimed they had an affidavit from Peterson’s driver, Jauquan Smith, in which Smith alleged he saw the gun in Harris’ hands before the shooting. Smith did not see who fired the gun, but according to Peterson and his lawyers, the statement supported the defense argument that Harris shot Megan. The same habeas petition also added claims that a bodyguard named Bradlie James overheard Harris confess that she fired the gun. (Harris testified at trial and denied firing the gun. She also gave a recorded statement to prosecutors in which she corroborated Megan’s account that Peterson was the triggerman.)
In their ruling, the judges said the trial transcript confirmed that Peterson and his lawyer “affirmatively decided not to call Mr. Smith as a witness at trial” on Dec. 21, 2022. They said Peterson also “forfeited” his right to invoke Smith’s statements after failing to raise them at sentencing. “In any event, the claims are without merit,” the judges said in their written decision.
Regarding Bradlie James, the judges called that argument “untimely,” saying the affidavit was dated Aug. 28, 2024, but it wasn’t submitted to the court until many months later. The judges said Peterson had failed to “justify the piecemeal presentation” of his habeas claims.
Peterson’s legal team did not respond to Rolling Stone‘s request for comment sent Tuesday. They’re expected to address the court in person on Monday regarding their claims Peterson did not receive a fair trial.
In his direct appeal, Peterson claims the judge who oversaw his 2022 trial erred when he allowed jurors to hear certain evidence, including testimony from Megan about the emotional impact of the shooting and its aftermath. Peterson also claims his trial lawyer gave him “ineffective counsel” by failing to “properly object” to Megan’s testimony. And Peterson alleges prosecutors also engaged in “misconduct” when they recounted Megan’s testimony in their closing arguments and suggested Lanez attempted to “bribe” witnesses. Prosecutors dispute that claim.
At Peterson’s closely watched trial, Megan gave three hours of harrowing testimony in which she recalled Peterson yelling “dance bitch” as he fired at her feet. The chief resident of orthopedic surgery at Cedars Sinai Medical Center walked jurors through X-rays showing Megan’s gunshot wounds on both of her lower extremities. He said doctors identified four metallic bullet fragments embedded in her feet and removed what they could during emergency surgery. A man who witnessed the shooting testified that he saw a “very agitated” man “firing everywhere.”
Peterson, 33, is currently serving his prison term at the California Men’s Colony in San Luis Obispo, California. He was moved to the new location after he was stabbed by a fellow inmate at a different state prison in Tehachapi in May.