Megan Thee Stallion & Kelsey Harris Expected To Testify After Dueling Opening Statements In Tory Lanez Shooting Trial, Ben Simmons Reacts To Claim He Was Involved With Meg

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Megan Thee Stallion and her (former) friend Kelsey Harris are expected to take the stand in the Tory Lanez shooting trial after dueling opening statements. Kelsey is expected to testify that she saw Tory shoot Meg. Meanwhile, Tory’s attorneys are painting a picture that Kelsey shot Meg after she allegedly slept with men with whom she had previously been intimate, including NBA star Ben Simmons. Find out how the NBA player reacted, as well as more trial details, inside…

The trial has finally begun.

Two years after Megan Thee Stallion accused Tory Lanez of shooting her in her feet during an argument after a pool party in the Hollywood Hills, the Canadian born artist is finally standing trial.

In October 2020, Tory Lanez, real name Daystar Peterson, was hit with a concealed firearm charge, which was later escalated to include one count of felony assault with a semiautomatic firearm and another gun possession charge, as well as carrying a loaded, unregistered firearm in a vehicle.

After a judge allowed the case to move forward to trial, Tory was hit with a new felony charge of discharging a firearm with gross negligence, added last week. Tory, 30, has maintained his innocence, pleading not guilty to all three charges. Not only that, he has also  publicly implied Megan Thee Stallion (real name Megan Pete) lied about the shooting, despite bullet fragments being found in her feet by a doctor.

He is facing 23 years in prison after rejecting a plea deal last year.

According to reports, the Traumazine raptress is expected to hit the stand on Tuesday to testify that Tory Lanez shot her after shouting “dance b*tch” in July 2020. Kelsey Harris, Meg’s former friend who was also in the car at the time of the shooting, is expected to testify that she “saw her close friend get shot by the defendant.” Also, prosecutor Alexander Bott shared text messages that Kelsey sent to Meg’s bodyguard the morning of the shooting, in which she wrote, “Help. Tory shot Meg. 911.”

After a week of jury selection, prosecutors argued that Tory and Meg, whom he claimed had “been intimate” with another, got into a huge argument on the night of July 11, 2020, following a pool party at Kylie Jenner’s house. They were all riding in a black Cadillac Escalade driven by Tory’s security guard, Jauquan Smith. According to Los Angeles County District Attorney Alexander Bott, Tory became enraged after “Meg had insulted his skills as a musical artist.”

Billboard reports:

She then exited the vehicle before Lanez allegedly grabbed and pointed a gun, yelled “Dance, bi—!” and fired five rounds, which Bott played the audio of twice during his statement. Prosecutors claim that “she was bleeding, she was injured” after Lanez struck both of Stallion’s feet.

And while arguing that Harris, who is expected to testify during the trial, “will tell you her close friend was shot by the defendant,” Bott also claimed the defendant “pulled her by the hair and “either punched her or slapped her.” He showed a screenshot of three consecutive text messages Harris sent to Stallion’s bodyguard, Justin Edison, at 4:27 a.m., just minutes after the shooting: “Help. Tory shot meg. 911.” After responding to 911 calls from neighbors, police officers — some of whom were called by prosecutors to take the stand today as witnesses — conducted a high-risk traffic stop on Hollywood Blvd., where they found a gun on the floorboard of the front passenger seat, where Lanez had been sitting. 

While Meg was being transported to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, where a doctor extracted three major bullet fragments from her foot during surgery, Kelsey, Tory, and Tory’s bodyguard were taken to the Hollywood police station and were tested for gunshot residue. Tory, Kelsey, and two other people at the scene tested positive for gunshot residue, according to Bott.

Other evidence the prosecutors brought in included a recording of a phone call Lanez made from jail to Harris at 9:05 a.m., approximately five hours after the shooting, where he profusely apologized and admitted he was “so drunk,” and a screenshot of his text to Stallion at 8:59 p.m., when he wrote, “Meg. I know you prolly never gone to talk to me again. But I genuinely want u to know I’m sorry from the bottom of my heart. And I was just too drunk .”

Bott ultimately argued that Harris’ texts to Edison claiming the defendant shot Stallion, the gun being “warm to the touch” (meaning it was consistent with a recent firing, Officer Sandra Cabral claimed in her testimony later on), the doctor who performed surgery on Stallion’s foot and found bullet fragments, the call Lanez made to Harris in jail hours after the shooting, and his apology text to Stallion should all point to the defendant being guilty.

Tory Lanez’s lead attorney George Mgdesyan argued the case is about “jealousy.”

He [Tory’s attorney] suggested Stallion was triggered by seeing Lanez and Jenner hanging in the pool together, causing her to want to leave the party with Lanez. They eventually left with Harris and Smith, the latter of whom drove them in the black SUV, but Mgdesyan stated Stallion had left some of her belongings at Jenner’s house and made the foursome return. “She was so drunk, she was so jealous,” he claimed, that the billionaire makeup mogul told the “Savage” rapper to leave the party because she was causing a scene.

The defense claimed that Stallion then started an argument with Lanez during their car ride back for initially not wanting to leave with her and instead wanting to stay with Jenner. When Harris sided with her, the Alone at Prom singer questioned her allegiance and exposed that Stallion had a sexual relationship with him behind Harris’ back, since Harris and Lanez had been linked together first. Lanez seems to have corroborated his claim in a tweet from February 2022 when he wrote that the apology text he had sent Stallion mere hours after the shooting was due to “good d*ick had me f—ing 2 best friends …. and I got caught.”

The defense argued Meg was also romantically involved with fellow rapper DaBaby and NBA player Ben Simmons shortly after Kelsey dated both men, insinuating Kelsey had a motive to shoot Meg.

Mgdesyan focused on the alleged physical altercation between Harris and Stallion in the car, stating that a witness named Sean Kelly, whom he said police interviewed minutes after the shooting because their SUV was parked near his house, saw Harris get out of the back seat, open Stallion’s front passenger door, and “saw a fist fight between the girls” before one of them held a gun. The defense eventually proposed the theory that Harris was the one who fired the gun and shot Stallion.

Mgdesyan also argued “[Stallion’s] lying about her story,” pointing to the numerous interviews she’s given with news outlets and police as well as Instagram Lives she’s held in the last two years. He questioned why the rapper initially told police officers she cut her foot stepping on broken glass before claiming she had suffered a gunshot wound days later. After media outlets reported that Lanez had fired the gun, Stallion directly accused him in an August 2020 Instagram video. The defense also suggested Stallion was not completely truthful during her CBS Mornings interview with Gayle King from April 2022, when she denied having an intimate relationship with his client. Mgdesyan also acknowledged the apology messages Lanez sent to both women, which prosecutors showed earlier, and argued that his client never mentioned a gun or shooting in his call to Harris or text to Stallion but apologized for “cheating on them, having a sexual relationship with both of them” and not disclosing that either of them.

The prosecution also claims Tory punched Kelsey and later apologized on a jail call.

After news about Meg allegedly being romantically involved with Ben Simmons went viral, he hopped on social media to seemingly respond.

Brooklyn Nets baller Ben Simmons upload a clip of rapper Rick Ross on his IG Stories where the rapper yelled “Accusations! False accusations!,” which is seemingly a response to accusations that he was romantically involved with the “Savage” rapper. Watch the clip above.

Paparazzi nabbed video of Tory leaving the courthouse after the first day of trial:

It’s odd that folks are quick to call Meg a liar when Tory has been caught in several lies— one being when he said he wasn’t there when singer August Alsina was assaulted. When August blasted Tory for physically assaulting him, Tory originally said he wasn’t there. Then, video footage surfaced, showing Tory WAS, in fact, there.

We’re just waiting to see how this all plays out in court. We hope Meg gets justice and Tory gets what he deserves.

Photos: imagepressagency/Depositphotos/Michael A Walker Jr/Shutterstock

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