Shawn Holley, the lawyer who first represented Tory Lanez ahead of his trial for shooting Megan Thee Stallion, disagreed with his plan to convince jurors that Megan's friend, Kelsey Harris, shot her.
Legal Affairs and Trials with Meghann Cuniff obtained the documents revealing this information after Lanez waived his attorney-client privilege.
“As we discussed on Saturday, I am not comfortable advancing the ‘Kelsie Defense’, primarily because I don’t find it to be a viable strategy,” Holley wrote to Lanez in an email back in November 2022. Holley misspelled Harris' name in the email as well.
Holley added that she didn't think her stance would change unless Quan, who the article says is Lanez's driver Jaquan Smith, “is persuasive in the preview of his testimony and you are persuasive under mock cross-examination.”
The last bit of the email Holley sent to Lanez suggested that he "discuss with George [Mgdesyan] his willingness to move forward with that defense [...]"
Mgdesyan ultimately became Lanez's lawyer after Holley withdrew herself from the case. On Dec. 18, she emailed Lanez informing him that she would no longer represent him in that trial. The email was also a part of the unsealed documents thanks to Lanez waiving his attorney-client privilege.
The email also informs Lanez that Alex Spiro, Megan's lawyer, "launched an investigation into Kelsey having been "compromised" (bribe or threatened)."
Before waiving his privileges, Judge Herriford told Lanez that "there's some things in there that I don't know that you want [...] to come out."
Despite that, Lanez still agreed to them being publicly released. Lanez's new lawyers, Mattew Barhoma and Jose Baez, wanted the documents to become unsealed so that they could show that "Holley feared a defense focused on Harris would elicit unwanted testimony from Harris about Holley’s own involvement in Lanez’s alleged attempted bribery."
Ultimately, Judge Herriford rejected the argument that Holley was ineffective when he denied Lanez a new trial.
Lanez's sentencing is scheduled for Aug. 7 in which prosecutors are seeking a 13-year prison sentence.
