The Court of Appeal on Thursday rejected rapper Tory Lanez’s motion to disqualify trial judge David Herriford and a stay of proceedings was also denied as the rapper’s June 13 sentencing approaches.
Justice Herriford will be sentencing Lanez next week. The rapper’s attorneys, Jose Baez, and Matthew Barhoma, filed the motion to disqualify Judge Herriford allegedly for abusing his discretion when he denied Lanez’s motion for a new trial as well as his denial to admit new evidence at the hearing.
The decision on Thursday was unanimous from all three appeal judges and said, “The petition for writ of mandate and request for stay are denied for failure to demonstrate entitlement to extraordinary relief.”
Tory Lanez, real name Daystar Peterson, lawyers had also applied to file an oversize brief which was denied, but the application to appear pro hac vice was granted.
The writ mandate for disqualification had said the judge should be disqualified because he had shown partiality in three ways when he did not allow the defense to introduce new evidence at the motion hearing, denied motions to show cause as well as the judge cutting off the oral hearings of the rapper’s lawyers.
Neither Baez nor Barhoma has reacted to the rejected motion.
The rapper’s sentencing is set for June 13. He is facing a possible 20 years minimum sentence for the three convictions, but the prosecution filed a sentencing memorandum on Wednesday asking that the judge consider a minimum of 13 years in jail for Lanez taking into consideration his treatment of the victim, the magnitude of the offense he committed against Lanez and his actions against Kelsey Harris as well as his past actions such as him beating up August Alsina for not dapping him.
Two of the suggested sentences are concurrent, so if the judge considers the prosecution’s memo, Lanez is likely to have a total served time of nine (9) years in jail.
The defense has not filed their sentencing memorandum, which will likely offer mitigating circumstances for the judge to consider, such as Lanez being a father, his status in the community, and his antecedents or past criminal record being clean.
