Thread by @meghanncuniff

Good morning from Los Angeles, where the seventh day of Tory Lanez’s assault trial for the 2020 shooting of Megan Thee Stallion is to get underway at 10:30 a.m. It’s Tory’s turn to call witnesses. I’m here for @lawcrimenews. Follow this 🧵 for updates from the courthouse.

About yesterday: It’s difficult to capture Eric Culberson’s witness stand attire in words. Thankfully, Mona was in the courtroom when Culberson started testifying. She joined the exodus for the Weinstein verdict, but not before she nailed the pink jacket. instagram.com/monashaferedwa…

Notable: Culberson took the stand after 70 minutes of a packed gallery sitting around wondering what happened to 1:30 start time, and Tory’s lawyer George Mgdesyan said something in exam that made me realize what the delay was about. “When we were upstairs a few minutes ago…”

Why would Mgdesyan be meeting w/ this witness, whom Mgdesyan emphasized in questioning was under subpoena and didn’t want to be here (“Who wants to be in court?” Culberson said), just before his testimony? It likely has to do with the “offer of proof” legal concept.

Michael Avenatti had to do it with Judge Selna when he wanted to make a couple federal agents not assigned to his case fly across the country to testify: Attorneys disclose privately why they want witness - as in what’s the benefit to their case? Judge decides whether to allow.

Given Culberson’s lack of firsthand knowledge about the shooting, the DAs likely wanted Mgdesyan to provide an offer of proof to Judge Herriford about why Culberson should be allowed to testify. And Mgdesyan’s statement in front of the jury that he’d just spoken to
Culberson…

…about exactly what he was asking about him in the courtroom indicates he wasn’t ready to do it and needed to talk to Culberson before he talked to Herriford. It would certainly explain why we all had to sit in that courtroom doing nothing for an hour.

All that certainly adds to the hype for today’s expected star defense witness, the neighbor Mgdesyan says will testify that he saw Kelsey and Meg fighting. How will his testimony come in? Stay tuned to this thread for updates. ⚖️🧵⚖️

The 10:30 trial start time exemplifies how much power judges have when setting their trial schedules. I covered the Kobe Bryant crash photos trial in federal court, just a couple blocks from here, and Judge John Walter ran it 8 to 2-2:30 with only two 10-minute breaks. No lunch.

The trial was an absolute blockbuster, probably the best I’ve ever covered, and Judge Walter packed in at least 5 hours and 40 minutes of testimony in at least six
hours. The trial was done in 10 days. Jurors never had their time wasted.

If Judge Herriford had kept that schedule or something merely in the range of the ballpark, Tory Lanez’s trial would have been over last week. Given the huge stress this case obviously is on so many lives, it seems like that would be a better option than this current schedule.

Instead, jurors in Lanez’s trial are in court for at least six hours every day, having their regular lives totally disrupted, but they only get in maybe three hours of testimony, which is making this trial stretch over two weeks in the midst of a major holiday season.

That shouldn’t happen in any trial, but this one is so volitale, it’s flu season, COVID’s still a thing. The possibilities for a mistrial are huge, especially as this drags on. I hope @LASuperiorCourt and its new CEO @davidwslayton view trial scshedules like this as unacceptable.

Hearings largely involve lawyers getting paid hundreds of dollars an hour to have court be their fulltime job. Jury trials are filled with people who never go to court and are getting their lasting impression of the U.S. judicial system. Give them the best experience possible.

Anyway, I’m off my rant. I’m outside awaiting Tory’s arrival, wondering if I should take one of those scooters for a spin in the mean time.

Tory Lanez has arrived at the courthouse.

Someone asked him about being in an elevator with a juror. Objectively speaking, it’s going to take a lot more than being in the same elevator as a juror for anything to happens

Most courthouses keep jurors far away from the public. Jurors are told not to be offended if attorneys ignore them because they’ve been told not to look at them. But around @LASuperiorCourt, elevators are a coveted thing.

If you see an open elevator, and there’s room or even appears to be a tiny space, you’d be kinda crazy not to get in there. The elevators are so packed people don’t even really realize who’s in there with them.

Now’s the time where we line up to wait to get into court. One line for badged media, another for the general public. General rule of thumb is to stay close to the cool people (not difficult because they’re everywhere) and stay away from anyone with a 4chan .com moderator vibe.

The Tory Lanez trial is on the standard 90-minute break, with defense witness Sean Kelly due back on the stand at 1:30. Kelly's testimony does not appear to be going quite how Tory's lawyer hoped it would.

"Sir, did you see the shorter guy with a gun in his hand?"

"Yes."

That Q & A between Mgdesyan and Sean Kelly occurred after Kelly said he awoke to noises and saw two women violently fighting by the car. He saw a flash and believes it was coming from one of the girls.
"They were pulling their hair and hitting each other. It was quite violent."

Kelly said he saw the driver exit wearing all black, and he joined the fray. Kelly was scared, and he asked his son to come into his room. He testified several times that he saw a muzzle flash and heard what he thought were fireworks, but believes the flashes were from a woman.

"Did you see a muzzle flash?" Mgdesyan asked.
"Yes," Kelly answered. He added: "About the same time that the smallest individual got out of the car."
It only worsened for Mgdesyan.
Kelly said the small guy "got out about that time, all shouting."

Kelly said after the smallest guy got out of the car, "I saw more flashes."
He stuck with his testimony that the flashes started with "the girls," and he said he never heard anyone say, "Dance, bitch" (which is what Meg testified Tory said before he opened fire)

Kelly: "I just want to be clear. I never saw a gun - I just saw flashes." And he again testified that the flashes were "from the girl." But he also said, "But they were all together. They were very close together."
The short guy "was very angry, he was making lots of noise."

Mgdesyan kept asking Kelly about him previously telling a defense investigator he saw Tory try to take the gun, but Kelly testified today that the short guy he saw "stepped out of the car and he joined the fray."

"They were fighting. They were all pulling each other," Kelly said.
Mgdesyan asked if he saw the shorter guy taking the gun from one of the women.
"I never saw that," Kelly answered.

Kelly said the shorter guy "was very angry" and was shouting. He said the flashes "came from him" but cautioned, "I never saw a gun."

Then in exchange that made everyone LOL, Mgdesyan pressed Kelly about Tory trying to take the gun and Kelly said it's not like he said, "Excuse me, can I have the gun? It's my turn."
Everybody laughed, and the judge had an amused look on his face as he waited for us to finish.

Thread broke, continues here.

https://twitter.com/meghanncuniff/status/1605296703006855169

Still, after all this, Kelly repeatedly testifies that he believes a woman fire the first shot. "I believe I saw the girl shoot first." But he didn't know she had a gun at the time. "I believed it was fireworks."

"I said that they were both shooting," Kelly said.
Mgdesyan asked who was the first shooter.
"The girl," Kelly said. But, "they were all fighting" The shorter guy "was pushing and fighting both girls."
"Everyone was fighting. Even the driver."

That's when Mgdesyan asked Kelly, "Sir, did you see the shorter guy with a gun in his hand?" and Kelly answered, "Yes."
Then everyone started beating one girl, and Kelly said "to me, it appeared that they were going to throw her in the river."

"It appeared to me when I was on the phone that they were trying to kill her," Kelly said. He said he heard the driver say the police are coming, and they put the woman in the Escalade and left.
Then came the cross. (All that above is from direct by Tory's lawyer.)

Deputy DA Alexander Bott began by asking Kelly about his 911 call. He didn't report a woman shooting - he reported a group beating on a woman.
Kelly said the shorter guy "was very agitated" and had his arms outstretched.
"He was firing everywhere," Kelly said.

"How many shots did you see the short guy shoot?" Bott asked.
"Four or five," Kelly answered.

Bott played home surveillance audio of the gunshots. Kelly testified about the shorter guy, "He was, like I said, shooting."
Afterward, the woman on the ground "was kicking all the time."
"She was crawling and stumbling across the road."

Bott also got out of Kelly more details about the girl he believes he saw shooting.
"I see what appears to be the girl shooting into the car." Then when the shorter guy was with the girl on the ground, he was yelling "just a torrent of abuse."

Bott asked Kelly what exactly the short guy was saying, telling the witness, "There's no censorship in the courtroom."
Kelly, a white man with what sounds like a British accent, answered, "It was all n-words" and f this, f that.

"And this was directed at the victim?" Bott asked.
"All of them...He was going crazy. Was really agitated," Kelly answered.
Kelly said the same thing about Tory in re-cross.
"He was highly agitated, shouting, lots of swearing."

Still, Kelly testified again: "I believe the girl fired the first shot."
Bott asked him "did that seem odd to you" that the defense investigator started recording after he'd already made several statements.
Kelly answered, "This whole thing seems odd to me."

Another thing about Kelly: He said his concern that night was his son, not the people outside, and this was traumatic. Some of what he said jurors may know isn’t true - the inside of the Escalade was not shot up. But his testimony became a real wild card for the defense.

Thread broke, continues here:

https://twitter.com/meghanncuniff/status/1605301035928408064

I’m back in the hallway waiting to go in, and my venture outside reminded me that the best view of this archaic courthouse is when it’s reflected in the snazzy nearby federal courthouse, as seen here.

‘Bizarre’ is definitely the word for it. The only other two who’ve testified about what happened that night are Megan and Kelsey, with Kelsey’s September interview doing most of the talking.

https://twitter.com/JamesQueallyLAT/status/1605304748004868097

Regarding Kylie Jenner testifying for Tory Lanez, I’ll make a not-so-bold prediction right now that there’s no possible way that is going to happen. The police detective is to testify this afternoon. Lanez could testify, but if he doesn’t this trial is going to end real quick.

Trial is on the afternoon break, after Sean Kelly finished testifying. The first witness of the trial took the stand again, @LAPDHQ Officer Rogelio Diaz, and confirmed he didn't ask Kelly who he thought the shooter was, then the lead detective testified, Ryan Stogner.

Stogner testified about his interview with Kelly. "He specifically said he couldn't tell who was holding the weapon," Stogner said. Stogner also was the one who spoke with Megan Thee Stallion four days after the shooting, when she first told them she had been shot.

Tory's lawyer George Mgdesyan asked Stogner if he asked if Megan had been intoxicated that night. Stogner said no, she'd been at a party and he knew alcohol was consumed. He also asked if Megan had mentioned anything about George Floyd when explaining why she didn't report sooner

Stogner said Megan didn't specifically mention Floyd, but "she had mentioned something to the effect of because police were shooting Black people she was afraid."
Mgdesyan confirmed that wasn't in Stogner's report.

In cross, Deputy DA Kathy Ta asked Stogner who Meg identified as the shooter. "Her friend Tory Lanez," Stogner answered.
Meg told police she didn't realize at first she'd been shot. "She just felt pain in her feet."

Stogner said neither Tory's driver Jaquan Smith nor Kelsey talked to him.
Meg also mentioned "some talk about money being offered" by Tory.
Asked how Meg was in the phone interview, the detective said, "She was very calm, somber and I would say upset about the entire situation."

One big issue remains: Will Tory Lanez testify?

If he does, Judge Herriford says any lyrics or videos that relate to this case are fair game, which DA Alexander Bott says include Lanez's music video in which he's "butchering horse feet, clearly directed at Megan."

Based on the questions Tory's lawyer George Mgdesyan was asking just before the break, he definitely wants to put Tory on the stand, but he's worried about that thing called cross-examination.
DA Alexander Bott mentioned the CAP video, as well as a lyric that says Meg is lying.

If Tory does testify, Deputy DA Bott wants to ask him about an assault on Love and Hip Hop star Prince in Florida. There's also talk about how prosecutors can address a diversion case Tory had that they say basically constitutes the probation his lawyer keeps saying he wasn't on.

The final witness for today was someone jurors heard from earlier in trial: Randy Zepeda, a criminalist with LAPD's crime lab who was called by prosecutors as a rebuttal witness for Lanez's DNA expert.

Zepeda answered "yes and no" when asked if he agrees with the expert's testimony that if someone fired a gun five times, they would leave DNA behind.
"There is also a possibility that you won't leave any behind," Zepeda testified.

Zepeda said we simply don't know if Tory Lanez's DNA was on the handgun that fired the five bullets the night Megan Thee Stallion was shot. Zepeda also said he disagrees with the expert's testimony that one of the four DNA profiles on the gun has to be female.

"If a lawyer argues to the jury that the defendant's DNA is not on the gun, is that accurate?" Deputy DA Alexander Bott asked.
"No," Zepeda answered.
He also said it wouldn't be accurate to say Lanez's DNA WAS on the gun, (which prosecutors haven't said).

The highlight of the afternoon probably occurred after the jury left and Bott complained to Judge Herriford that Tory's lawyer George Mgdesyan said to him today, "Keep smirking and see what happens."
Bott said Mgdesyan has conducted himself unprofessionally this entire trial.

Bott said Mgdesyan said that to him after his cross-examination of Sean Kelly the neighbor. He said Mgdesyan has been muttering under his breath and regularly calling him names such as idiot and also something much more offensive in chambers.

Bott called Mgdesyan's conduct "vastly inappropriate" and asked Judge Herriford to admonish him, but the judge shrugged it off and moved into a discussion of exhibits and jury instructions. More to come on that.

Here are Deputy DAs Alex Bott and Kathy Ta leaving today. Judge Herriford said the jury should begin hearing closing arguments tomorrow.

I asked Tory’s father if I could photograph him, and he happily agreed. The women he’s with told me she preferred not to give her name or relation to Tory (“I want to remain a mystery.”) but she told me she has a reporting background and respects what reporters do.

Tory left the courthouse with his young son in his arms. (The boy was not in the courtroom today and didn’t appear in the hallway with Tory’s friends/family until late in the afternoon.)

I’m working on a full story about today but wanted to follow up on earlier tweets about prosecutors’ cross-exam plans should Tory Lanez decide to testify: They plan to ask him about his alleged assault of @AugustAlsina.