Tory Lanez Sues California Prison System Over Stabbing

Photo Credit: Tory Lanez for The Come Up Show / CC by 2.0

Tory Lanez is suing the California Department of Corrections for $100 million over an incident last year in which he was stabbed 16 times by a fellow inmate.

Rapper Tory Lanez has filed a $100 million lawsuit against the California Department of Corrections over an incident in May last year in which he was stabbed 16 times by a fellow inmate. Lanez, whose real name is Daystar Peterson, is currently serving a 10-year sentence after being found guilty in late 2022 for shooting at Megan Thee Stallion back in 2020.

As well as suing the Department of Corrections, his lawsuit also names the warden and guards at the California Correctional Institute in Tehachapi. It was there that the rapper was stabbed 16 times by another inmate in an “unprovoked, life-threatening attack.” After the attack, Lanez was hospitalized and suffered a collapsed lung.

The lawsuit said the Department of Corrections should not have housed Lanez with fellow inmate and alleged attacker Santino Casio, who was serving a life sentence for second-degree murder.

“The choice to house Casio with Peterson was known or should have been a known danger,” the lawsuit read, asserting that Lanez’s “high-profile celebrity status” made him an obvious target.

According to the filing, the prison guards were slow to respond to the attack and did not employ appropriate measures to stop Casio. The filing also says the inmate was reportedly not charged in the assault.

Further, Lanez claims that he never received his possessions from the California Correctional Institute in Tehachapi after he was transferred to San Luis Obispo County’s California Men’s Colony following his hospitalization.

Lanez was found guilty in December 2022 for shooting Megan Thee Stallion in the foot during a confrontation in the summer of 2020. He was convicted on several firearms charges. His appeal was denied in November 2025 by a three-judge panel, upholding his 10-year prison sentence.

Though he had been making music since 2009, Tory Lanez was first discovered by Sean Kingston and came to recognition in the summer of 2013 for his mixtape Conflicts of My Soul: The 416 Story.

He signed with Mad Love Records/Interscope in 2015 and released his debut studio album, I Told You, the following year. He has released eight studio albums as of 2025.