Megan Thee Stallion’s ex-assistant took to the witness stand at Tory Lanez‘ trial yesterday (December 14), appearing to retract an earlier statement that the rapper threatened her with gun.
Lanez (real name Daystar Peterson) is accused of shooting Megan (real name Megan Pete) in the foot in July of 2020 during a dispute that unravelled following a pool party at reality star Kylie Jenner’s house in California.
He faces three felony charges, all of which he denies: one count of assault with a semiautomatic firearm; one count of carrying a concealed, loaded, and unregistered firearm in a vehicle, and a third charge of discharging a firearm with gross negligence.
If convicted Lanez faces a possible 22 years and eight months in prison in addition to deportation since he is a Canadian citizen.
After Pete herself testified earlier this week and spoke of depression and suicidal thoughts due to the stress of the incident and subsequent trial, Kelsey Harris – the rapper’s ex-assistant and former friend – took to the stand in the Los Angeles court yesterday.
Following reports at the start of the trial that Harris was set to testify that she saw Lanez fire the gun that injured Pete, the first day of her appearance saw prosecutors reveal that she conducted an interview in September in which she claimed that Lanez threatened to shoot her before allegedly firing on Pete.
As Rolling Stone reports, after confirming that she did give the testimony in the September interview, Harris said some of the statements she gave were “not accurate” and that had been “not truthful” in order to “protect” herself.
“Some of those things I stated, they were not accurate,” she added. “The night was a blur. We were under the influence.”
Snippets of the recorded interview with prosecutors were played out in court yesterday for the jury, with Harris telling police that she allegedly heard Lanez say, “I’ll shoot you,” before he “reached like he was going to grab something” from inside the car.
After she said in the interview that she saw Lanez “aiming the gun straight but always in a downward direction toward Megan,” Harris yesterday changed her story and told the court that she didn’t witness the shooting at all.
Of Pete, from whom she is now estranged, Harris added: “She’s painted the picture that I betrayed her, she’s painted the picture that I’m this bad person, bad friend, that I took hush money. There are many lies.”
Confirming to Deputy District Attorney Kathy Ta that there were “accusations about [Harris] having shot Megan” she repeated that they were “ridiculous”.
Ta then asked Harris if she remembered making the claim that Lanez threatened to shoot her. “Do I have to answer that?” she responded, before invoking her fifth amendment right and taking no further questions.
Harris returns to the witness stand today (December 15).
Earlier this month, Lanez was released from house arrest at a judge’s discretion in order to prepare for the trial. He was initially facing two charges: one count of assaulting Pete with a semiautomatic firearm, and one count of carrying a concealed, loaded, and unregistered firearm in a vehicle.
Lanez has pleaded not guilty to the charges. Prosecutors then added a third charge of discharging a firearm with gross negligence.
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