Firearms expert testifies that the gun prosecutors say was used to shoot Megan Thee Stallion must have been fired on purpose
(AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)
- Tory Lanez's trial on assault charges continued on Friday with testimony from a firearms expert.
- Srinivasan Rathinam said almost 9 pounds of force are needed to shoot the gun used in this incident.
- The gun was also in "slide-lock position" indicating that each of the rounds had been fired.
On the fifth day of Tory Lanez's trial on assault charges, prosecutors brought in an expert on firearms, who discussed his findings after investigating the gun police believe was used to shoot Megan Thee Stallion after a gathering at Kylie Jenner's house in 2020.
Prosecutors with the Los Angeles District Attorney's office accused Lanez of shooting Megan in the feet in the early morning hours of July 12, 2020, while Lanez's attorney has accused Megan's former best friend Kelsey Harris of firing the weapon. Harris, who testified Wednesday and Thursday, has denied the allegations.
Lanez, whose legal name is Daystar Peterson, was charged in October 2020 with two charges: assault with a semiautomatic firearm, personal use of a firearm and carrying a loaded, unregistered firearm in a vehicle. Lanez was also hit with a new charge earlier this month of discharging a firearm with gross negligence relating to the conflict.
He has denied shooting Megan and pleaded not guilty. If convicted, Lanez faces up to 22 years in prison.
Firearms examiner Srinivasan Rathinam, with the LAPD, said that 8.5 pounds are force are needed to shoot the semiautomatic 9mm luger caliber firearm that police found on the floorboard of the Black SUV the group was riding in the night of the incident.
"If you just tap the trigger, it won't fire," he said, adding that "you need to pull the trigger all the way down."
Rathinam also confirmed that the cartridge casings found at the scene of the shooting — four were found by police right after the incident, and one was found by a neighbor the following day — matched the gun found in the vehicle.
Rathinam added: "I'm not sure whether I can call this an accident."
Prosecutors told the court during opening statements that police found the gun was "warm" on a cool night and in "slide-lock position," indicating not only that the gun had recently been used, they said, but also that all of the rounds had been fired.
The gun was fired five times, prosecutors said, hitting Megan in several parts of her feet. Some remnants from the bullets remain inside her feet, a surgeon testified on Thursday.
Prosecutors called another expert after Rathinam, Randy Zepeda, a criminalist for the LAPD who said DNA is not always left behind or found on objects.
Zepeda's testimony corroborates the LAPD's findings in the investigation: Lanez's DNA was not found on the magazine of the gun, but the DNA results were inconclusive on the handgun.
The defense's first witness, Marc Scott Taylor, a forensic scientist, agreed with the findings that Lanez's DNA was not found on the magazine of the gun, and that results were inconclusive on the handgun.
The trial will resume on Monday morning.