Tory Lanez Celebrates Possible Plea Deal By… Announcing Another Album

Rapper Tory Lanez is in “meaningful discussions” to strike a deal with prosecutors in his felony assault case involving Megan Thee Stallion, a Los Angeles prosecutor revealed Thursday. Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney Kathy Ta told a judge at a morning hearing that the talks could resolve the case and make it unnecessary to call witnesses at a preliminary hearing in December.

“We’re in possible settlement discussions,” Ta told Rolling Stone after the brief hearing, adding that if there’s no settlement by the next court date, November 3rd, “we’ll do the preliminary hearing sometime in December.” 

Lanez’s defense lawyer, Shawn Holley, appeared at the hearing by phone and spoke only to agree to the next court date. 

In a statement to Rolling Stone, Holley said: “As in every case, the lawyers for the parties discuss the possibility of resolving the case. This case is no different. That said, our position as to what did and did not happen in this matter remains unchanged, and Mr. Peterson’s plea of not guilty stands.”

Lanez, 29, whose legal name is Daystar Peterson, stands accused of using a semiautomatic firearm to shoot at the feet of the “Savage” rapper around 4:30 a.m. on July 12th, 2020, after the pair left a party in the Hollywood Hills in an SUV. Peterson has pleaded not guilty and is out of custody on $250,000 bail.

The amount was hiked up from $190,000 this summer after Peterson appeared at the Rolling Loud Festival in Miami on July 25th, violating a court order barring him from coming within 100 yards of Megan or contacting her in any way. As Megan was performing, Peterson “attempted to rush the stage,” prosecutors claimed in an August 13th bail motion. When she finished her set — but was still at the venue — Peterson hopped onstage during with DaBaby, disguised in a costume as Megan’s song “Cry Baby” played. “I’ll give somebody out here a million dollars if they can guess who is here,” DaBaby told the crowd, before Peterson revealed himself and the rappers performed Lanez’s song “Skat.”

The Thursday hearing in Los Angeles followed Peterson cryptically tweeting “It’s been real” and deactivating his Instagram this week, leaving many music fans wondering if the rapper was in some kind of renewed trouble. A source told Rolling Stone the deactivation had nothing to do with the criminal case. The social media moves may instead be part of a promotional campaign for Peterson’s next album, Alone at Prom, which he announced today and is due out December 1st.

Back in July 2020, police said Peterson opened fire on a then-unidentified victim with an unregistered gun after an argument on Nichols Canyon Road in Los Angeles. Cops didn’t identify Megan by name, but the “WAP” rapper started posting about the terrifying incident on Instagram. “I was shot in both of my feet and I had to get surgery to get the shit taken out, get the bullets taken out,” the Houston-bred entertainer, whose legal name is Megan Pete, said in one video shared two weeks after the shooting. “It was superscary. It was, like, just the worst experience of my life.” 

“Thank God that the bullets didn’t touch bones, they didn’t break tendons,” she added. “Where the bullets hit at, it missed everything.”

Pete declined to name Peterson as the alleged shooter for weeks, but then finally called him out two months later. “Yes,” she said in another Instagram Live video. “Tory shot me.”

Speaking to GQ magazine, Megan said she was trying to walk away when the violence unfolded: “Like, I never put my hands on nobody. I barely even said anything to the man who shot me when I was walking away. We were literally like five minutes away from the house.”

Peterson was charged last October with one felony count each of assault with a semiautomatic firearm and carrying a loaded, unregistered firearm in a vehicle. The Canadian artist faces up to 22 years and eight months in prison if convicted as charged.