Tory Lanez’s criminal trial for the 2020 shooting of Megan Thee Stallion continued in court today with Megan’s former friend Kelsey Harris back on the stand and cross-examination underway.
Deputy District Attorney Kathy Ta continued her questioning of Harris, whose first-person account had been long-awaited, as Lanez has repeatedly denied shooting Megan — whose real name is Megan Pete — during a roadside assault in July 2020. Harris had not made any comments in the two years following the incident.
According toLaw & Crime’s Meghann Cuniff,Ta asked Harris at the top of questioning: “What happened between September and today that you forgot everything?,” referring to a September interview in which Harris gave several details corroborating Pete’s story that Lanez — whose real name is Daystar Peterson — had shot her.
Harris testified “some things” were true in that video, but not all of it — repeating she had forgotten much of what she initially said because she is anxious, dealing with postpartum depression and death in the family, a note she made the first time she took the stand on Wednesday. Harris had blindsided prosecutors that morning when she immediately requested “use immunity,” which was granted, but she remained somewhat unresponsive to questions relating to the assault and invoked her fifth amendment rights repeatedly.
Ta began questioning on Thursday by asking Harris about being granted immunity for her testimony and underlined the fact that the immunity does not cover perjury (the defense team did the same at the start of the cross-examination). Then, Ta asked Harris if Pete was shot that night, to which Harris testified “her team told me she stepped on glass.”
Harris told Ta she did not know who shot Pete and said the Houston-born rapper “needs to be held accountable for spreading false information.” She had made a similar statement on Wednesday, stating that Pete had “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.”
During cross-examination, Harris told the defense that she “would like to make that very clear” that Lanez, whose real name is Daystar Peterson, did not pay her prior to the beginning of the trial. Pete had previously claimed Peterson had offered her “a million dollars” to not tell authorities that he had shot her.
The morning session included rulings from Judge Herriford, who ruled that the defense can call the LAPD detective on the case to ask why he didn’t pursue Harris as a possible shooter, and said prosecutors could bring in Harris’ texts, including one text sent to Pete’s security guards: “Help,’’ “Tory shot meg,” and “911,” plus another which Harris had sent to Pete:
“Should I get a scan at urgent care? My chest is hurting… my left side, back and neck hurt, but that’s from the fighting and him dragging me out of the car by my hair.”
The defense tried to block this ruling, calling it “late discovery,” but prosecutors said it was “critical” considering Kelsey had backtracked on her September statements.
Harris once again denied the claim that she was the one who shot Pete, speculation implied by Peterson’s defense team, who argued his DNA was not found on the weapon used in the attack while Harris’ DNA was. Harris responded on Wednesday in court that those accusations were “ridiculous.”
Jurors also heard from Dr. Lee Haruno, the surgeon who operated on Pete’s foot the night she was shot. He presented a series of X-rays and identified four metallic bullet fragments in her feet, and testified that they had removed what they could during emergency surgery that night.
Harris has repeatedly testified that most of the occurrences of that night were “blurry” because the group had been drinking at Kylie Jenner’s home prior to the assault.
“Kelsey, I understand it was alcohol,” Peterson’s attorney, George Mgdesyan, said during cross-examination on Thursday, before proceeding to ask if there had been a physical fight between her and Pete. “We probably just like bumped into each other,” she responded.
According to Los Angeles Times reporter James Queally, Judge Herriford has allowed the prosecution to play the entire 80 minutes of Harris’s September interview in court, which will most likely happen when the trial resumes either tomorrow.
