Nearly three years after Tory Lanez was convicted of shooting Megan Thee Stallion in 2020, the saga continues. Despite being found guilty in court of the shooting, which followed an argument between Tory, Megan and Megan’s former friend Kelsey Harris, Tory maintains his innocence as he appeals his 10-year sentence.
On May 14, the Canadian rap-crooner’s legal team, Unite the People, hosted a press conference and claimed to have new evidence that proves Harris was, in fact, the shooter. Information they claim was overheard by Harris’ former bodyguard, Bradley James.
“This further iterates Mr. Peterson did not shoot Ms. Pete, did not shoot at Ms. Pete and did not assault Ms. Pete.” Unite The People consultant Water Roberts told the assembled press.
In the wake of the press conference, a petition was started to have Tory released from prison. California Rep. Anna Paulina Luna even went on X to ask that California Gov. Gavin Newsom pardon Tory.
With public perception seemingly starting to sway in Tory’s favor, Meg broke her silence on May 19 and reaffirmed she was shot by Tory.
“Facts are facts, he did it, it was proven in court,” she wrote on TikTok. “TORY SHOT ME!! Ain’t no new f**king evidence. Y’all been saying the same sh*t for years. TORY PLEASE LEAVE ME ALONE you a f**king demon!”
On Thursday (May 22), Meg’s legal team released evidence that was shown in the trial that led to Tory’s conviction by a jury of his peers, which can be seen below. Megan’s attorney, Mari Henderson, also spoke with XXL in an exclusive interview about the update in the case and rebuked the new information that is being presented.
XXL: Tory Lanez’s attorneys say they have new evidence that proves his innocence. What do you have to say about that?
Mari Henderson: There is no new evidence that proves his innocence. And in fact, they’re taking evidence that had already been introduced at trial by the prosecution and trying to spin it and claim that this somehow exonerates him. As just one example, they claim that there’s exclusive Ring footage that hadn’t been released before that proves he’s innocent. All that Ring footage is footage from one of the neighbors where the shooting occurred, where you can hear five gunshots. That footage was admitted as evidence at trial.
In fact, it was played by the DA in his opening statement and supported the testimony of both Meg, the victim who testified she was shot five times, and the independent witness who called 911, who, when he called 911, said he overheard four to five gunshots. And you hear those gunshots ring out in the Ring camera footage. The detective who investigated this case went door to door to find any footage, and that is the footage that was found and played at trial.
And so that’s just one example of a claim of new evidence. One other example of a claim of new evidence is that he claims that the DNA proves he’s not the shooter and that Kelsey Harris must be the shooter. But if you look at the DNA evidence, first off, this is someone who just months ago claimed that the DNA evidence couldn’t even be tested because the gun was missing, which was a blatant lie because the gun has been in the LAPD sheriff’s locker in the evidence lab this entiretime ready for testing.
And that’s something he and his lawyers claimed to the court of appeal in a court filing that the gun was missing. And then that was completely debunked. The gun is not missing. And the DNA evidence shows that male DNA is on it, not female DNA. So it could not have been Kelsey Harris who shot Meg, as he now claims. This is someone who has continued to perpetuate false narratives and now claims there’s new evidence when there’s really not.
So, who is this bodyguard they’re now claiming that he overheard Kelsey Harris say she’s the one who shot Meg?
This purported bodyguard is someone who has not surfaced in nearly five years after the shooting. And the first time anyone has heard the name Bradley James was at a press conference that Tory’s team had, where you didn’t actually hear from Bradley James himself, who claims to be a security guard that was working for Kelsey Harris during the trial and allegedly overheard some supposed form of an admission.
He never testified under oath. He never testified at all. He never submitted a declaration. And so in lawyer speak, this is complete hearsay. And Tory is claiming that there’s this alleged bodyguard or witness that will prove that Kelsey’s the shooter, when before the trial, Tory Lane said that Kelsey’s not the shooter in an Instagram comment section on The Shade Room.
And now he’s turning around and claiming she’s the shooter, and he was protecting her all along. It makes absolutely no sense.
What are the facts in the case that were established during trial that led to Tory’s conviction?
First off, this is someone who, in the hours after the shooting occurred, admitted guilt. He texted to apologize. He admitted in a recorded jail phone call and apologized again for shooting Meg. Meg took the stand and testified that he shot her. The 911 caller took the stand and testified that the short man, Tory Lanez, took the gun and shot her four to five times. The gun itself was found underneath the floorboard where Tory Lanez was sitting when the car was pulled over by the police. And it was still hot to the touch, meaning he had just recently used it to fire five rounds at Meg.
And this is someone who, for years, claims that she stepped on broken glass. That was his old defense theory before his new defense theory, now claiming that Kelsey is the shooter. But the surgeon from Cedars-Sinai testified that he extracted bullet fragments from [Megan’s] feet.
That’s just some of the mountain of evidence that was shown by the prosecution at trial, which is why we are confident while this case is on appeal that the court of appeal will indeed uphold the conviction.
Why do you think his legal team is bringing up this new information now?
Because every few months, they claim there’s new information that exonerates him. Last year, he filed two different writ petitions with the court of appeal. One claiming that [Tory’s bodyguard] Jaquan Smith said that [Tory’s] not the shooter, although Jaquan Smith never testified at trial. He was present. He was there at court, [but] didn’t testify at trial. His defense attorney did not call him, had the opportunity to and did not call him.
And then a few months later, again, last year, he filed a writ petition claiming that they couldn’t find the gun, if it was available for testing would exonerate him, but it was not available for testing because it had gone missing. Again, not true.
This is someone who’s faced with the harsh reality that he was sentenced for his crime to 10 years and has to face his punishment and is trying to drum up media attention and conspiracy theorists and mouthpieces to continue to harass and terrorize and re-victimize Meg, who just wants to put a close to this painful chapter on her life now going five years later.
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