Tory Lanez‘s claim of having new evidence that can prove his innocence over Megan Thee Stallion‘s shooting has been refuted by California’s Attorney General’s Office.
Lanez was hoping that a statement from his driver Jauquan Smith claiming that he saw Megan’s friend Kelsey Harris holding a gun would be used to toss out his 10-year prison sentence for shooting the Houston rapper in July 2020.
AD LOADING...
Smith said in his affidavit, which was part of a habeas petition filed in December by Tory’s appellate lawyers, that he didn’t actually see who pulled the trigger.
In an informal response on Monday (July 29), Deputy Attorney General Michael C. Keller argued that Smith’s statement doesn’t qualify as new evidence and should therefore not be used to overturn Lanez’s conviction.
AD LOADING...
Keller cited previously undisclosed statements from the rapper’s previous lawyer, George Mgdesyan, who decided not to call Smith to the witness stand during the December 2022 trial.
“Defense counsel acknowledged that he had spoken with Smith regarding his observations and determined that Smith would not be a helpful witness,” Keller wrote in the 38-page filing, obtained by court reporter Meghann Cuniff.
Tory Lanez says a statement from his driver constitutes new evidence in the shooting of Megan Thee Stallion, but the state says he knew how the driver would testify and chose not to call him.
My article on the response to the rapper's habeas petition: https://t.co/EOzD5CjXMnpic.twitter.com/OfabqDj18B
— Meghann Cuniff (@meghanncuniff) July 29, 2024
The fact that Smith didn’t see who fired the gun “does not directly contradict [Megan]’s testimony that petitioner [Lanez] was the person who shot her,” Keller added.
Keller went on to detail the “wealth of other evidence” supporting Tory’s guilt, such as DNA results, Megan testifying that he shot her and the Canadian rapper appearing to implicate himself in texts and phone calls after the shooting.
AD LOADING...
Tory Lanez has been seeking a new trial based on an “erroneous admission of evidence” and “prosecutorial misconduct.”
The 32-year-old was sentenced to a decade in prison last September after being found guilty on all three felony counts at trial. He faces deportation to his birth country of Canada following his eventual release.
Before the trial, Kelsey Harris told detectives that she saw Tory firing several shots at Megan The Stallion during the drunken dispute following a party at Kylie Jenner’s Hollywood Hills home.
During her turn on the witness stand, however, Harris backtracked by claiming that she remembered little of that night and repeatedly invoking her fifth amendment rights.
AD LOADING...
Megan herself has said that Harris did not shoot her and that the person who did is “in jail,” referring to Lanez.
