Megan Thee Stallion‘s former friend and assistant Kelsey Harris took the stand Wednesday (Dec. 14) on the third day of the highly publicized trial over whether Tory Lanez shot Megan in the foot on July 12, 2020.
During Harris’ testimony — which saw her become increasingly hesitant about answering Deputy District Attorney Kathy Ta‘s questions about what happened on the night in question — a recording from an interview she gave to Ta, Deputy District Attorney Alexander Bott and an investigator in September 2022 was played in court to try to jog her memory. During a portion of that earlier interview, Harris could be heard claiming that Lanez had also threatened to shoot her on the car ride back from Kylie Jenner‘s house prior to the shooting. But in a surprising turn, Harris recanted that earlier testimony from the stand.
Earlier in the day, Harris arrived in court with her attorney Daniel A. Nardoni wearing a black blouse and slacks and carrying a black bejeweled Christian Louboutin bag. Before the jury arrived, Nardoni said his client planned to assert her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination, leading Judge David Herriford to address her concern as “legitimate.” Prosecutors then offered her “use immunity” — meaning nothing derived from her testimony may be used against her in a criminal proceeding — before she was sworn in and took the stand.
Harris is a key witness because she was one of only two people present with Megan and the defendant at the time of the alleged shooting, aside from Lanez’s security guard Jauquan Smith. During opening statements earlier this week, Lanez’s lead attorney George Mgdesyan pushed the theory that Harris may have been the one who pulled the trigger instead of his client. The defense’s argument heavily relied on an account from another witness, Sean Kelly, whom the police interviewed shortly after the shooting because the SUV carrying Megan, Lanez, Harris and Smith had stopped near his house. Mgdesyan said Kelly saw Harris exit from the back seat of the car and open Megan’s front passenger door before witnessing “a fist fight between the girls” and seeing one of the women point a gun at the other.
During her time on the stand Tuesday, Megan explained to prosecutors that Harris was her “best friend since freshman year of college” who later became her assistant at the end of 2019. During cross-examination, the Grammy-winning rapper (real name Megan Pete) denied Harris was the shooter and told the defense it was their client Lanez (real name Daystar Peterson) who yelled, “Dance, bi—!” before allegedly pointing the gun and shooting her. Megan, 27, also revealed that she and Harris have not seen each other since the incident.
On Wednesday, Harris was initially composed but became increasingly reticent after Ta began interrogating her about her side of the story.
“I don’t want to be here today. It’s a triggering situation. I just don’t want to be here,” Harris told Ta at one point, echoing Megan’s own statements during her testimony the day prior. She also denounced the defense’s argument that she shot Megan, calling the accusation “ridiculous.”
For the duration of the hearing, Harris appeared distracted, consistently asking Ta to repeat her questions and “refresh [her] memory” by playing specific audio clips taken from the September 2022 interview. When asked again how she felt about being in court, Harris blamed “anxiety, post-partum, a death in the family…[and a] sick baby” as reasons why she was not mentally present in the courtroom. However, she told Ta that being in the same room as Lanez, who was wearing a light brown suit and black turtleneck with black velvet loafers, did not affect her ability to testify.
While describing the relationship between herself, Megan and Lanez — which she said started after the two women met Lanez at a Roc Nation brunch in 2020 — Harris claimed the “Luv” singer “was someone that Megan wanted me to pursue beyond a friendship” and that “there were a few nights we had been engaged,” confirming she had an intimate relationship with the singer. After returning from a trip to her hometown of Houston for a few months that year due to COVID, she said she realized that Megan and Lanez had grown closer during her time away.
Harris then began recounting what happened at Jenner’s house, insisting that it wasn’t a “party” but rather a small “gathering” with about six people. “A lot of alcohol had been involved,” said Harris, who said she had drunkenly passed out at Jenner’s home for a few hours before returning to the gathering, at which point only herself, Megan, Lanez, Jenner and Megan’s stylist EJ King — who had driven Megan and Harris to the party that night — remained. Harris described Megan as “drunk” and that “her behavior was a little off” and later said that Lanez was “just being Tory” and “flirting with Kylie” — an admission that caused the defendant to smirk from his seat.
According to Harris, after King convinced Megan to leave the house because her wig was falling off, the rapper argued that she wanted to leave with Lanez and had King move her and Harris’ bags from his car to Lanez’s car. She claimed that Lanez then told Smith to “just take them home” in an “adamant way” because he didn’t want to leave. Shortly after Smith, Lanez’s security guard, began driving the two women home, Megan insisted they all return to the house because she “had left a slipper.” Harris then recalled seeing Megan rush out the house with Lanez, saying, “Bi—, Kylie said we gotta get the f— out!” before the two hopped in the car with Harris and Smith.
Once Ta began interrogating Harris about what happened in the car, the witness became noticeably flustered. “Do I have to answer that?” she asked Judge Herriford, who nodded his head, prompting her to describe the arguments that ensued. “There was a lot of back and forth in the car,” she testified, later explaining how “upset” and “confused” she had felt when Lanez eventually told Harris that he and Megan were “having a relationship.” When prosecutors questioned whether Lanez called the two women “bi—es and h–s” — which the “Savage” MC claimed in court the day before — Harris couldn’t provide a direct response. It was then that Bott started playing bits of the September 2022 recording, which Judge Herriford informed the jury could not be considered as evidence.
After the portion of the recording was played where Harris claimed Lanez had threatened to shoot her, Ta pressed Harris about the validity of her claim. Harris then attempted to assert her Fifth Amendment right, only for Judge Herriford to tell her she first needed to discuss that with her attorney. After returning from an hour-and-a-half lunch recess, Harris went on to recant her prior statement that Lanez had threatened to shoot her, admitting parts of her September 2022 interview “weren’t accurate. There were some things I wasn’t truthful about to protect myself,” she testified. Over the course of her testimony, Harris never explained what she was protecting herself from, nor which parts of the interview were less than “100% truthful.”
Prosecutors went on to play more of the recorded interview, which revealed Harris stating that Lanez verbally threatened her by saying, “My n—a, I’ll shoot you” and then “reached” for something in the “center console” of the vehicle but “never opened it.”
In the midst of Harris’ testimony, Ta grew noticeably irritated with the witness, raising her voice as she questioned why she’d admitted to sending Justin Edison, Megan’s security guard, three texts that read “Help. Tory shot meg. 911” if she didn’t — as Harris testified — see Lanez shoot the rapper. “I was in a panic,” Harris responded. Ta then showed Harris a photo of herself, taken at the police station on the night of the shooting, that showed her with blood on her leg. Harris replied, “I don’t know whose blood that was.” She then testified that Megan had been bleeding — and had put her leg on Harris’ in the car following the shooting — but that she hadn’t known where the blood was coming from and remained uncertain of Megan’s injuries up to the point when she arrived at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, where Megan was being treated. Ta then asked incredulously, “This is your best friend, right?”
Lanez, 30, currently faces three felony charges: assault with a semiautomatic firearm; carrying a loaded, unregistered firearm in a vehicle; and discharging a firearm with gross negligence, the latter of which was added to the list of charges ahead of the trial last week. If convicted on all three counts, he faces 22 years in prison.
Harris is due back in court Thursday (Dec. 15) to complete her testimony.
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