Tory Lanez’s legal team is continuing to fight his 2022 conviction, claiming Megan Thee Stallion’s testimony was full of mistakes and that the trial was unfair.
At a key appeals hearing on Monday, August 18, Lanez’s lawyer, Laura L. Cepero, told a panel of five judges that they still strongly believe he’s innocent and that his conviction was a “miscarriage of justice.” One of their biggest arguments focused on DNA evidence. Cepero said prosecutors gave the jury the wrong idea about what the tests actually showed.
She explained that the results suggested it was very unlikely Tory’s DNA was on the gun, saying there’s a “one in a million” chance it was his. “It’s actually more likely that someone else touched the gun than Tory,” Cepero said. She believes this could have been enough to create reasonable doubt if the jury had heard it correctly.
Cepero also said that Tory’s legal rights were violated during the trial. She argued that his lawyers weren’t allowed to properly question Kelsey Harris, a key witness and Megan Thee Stallion’s former friend. On top of that, she pointed out that Megan’s former bodyguard, Justin Edison, was expected to testify but never did, yet prosecutors still brought him up in their opening statements, which she says misled the jury.
On the other side, Attorney General Michael C. Keller pushed back, saying the case against Tory was solid. He said Tory seemed to admit guilt in at least three different moments and that the jury had strong reasons to convict him. “He was clearly accepting responsibility for something serious,” Keller told the judges.
Tory Lanez, whose real name is Daystar Peterson, was found guilty of three felonies related to shooting Megan Thee Stallion in 2020. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison in December 2022. This isn’t his first time trying to appeal the conviction, but his legal team hopes the court will give him another chance.
