Rapper Mystikal Sentenced to 20 Years in Prison for Third-Degree Rape

Rapper Mystikal, whose legal name is Michael Lawrence Tyler and who received Grammy nominations in the early 2000s, has been sentenced to 20 years in prison after pleading guilty to third-degree rape in connection with a 2022 assault at his Louisiana home, officials said. The plea deal capped his sentence at 20 years, reducing the charge from first-degree rape, which carries a mandatory life sentence, according to court records. Days before sentencing, Mystikal asked the court to withdraw his guilty plea, saying he had not fully understood the consequences, according to ABC affiliate WBRZ. The victim addressed the court and urged the judge to impose the maximum sentence. Mystikal has been held without bond since his 2022 arrest. Mystikal rose to fame in the 1990s and is known for his hit “Shake Ya A**,” which earned a Grammy nomination. In 2003, he pleaded guilty to sexual battery and was sentenced to six years in prison. Prosecutors in his most recent case planned to bring up Tyler’s 2003 guilty plea to sexual battery and extortion as evidence of prior crimes, the rapper’s lawyer said in 2022. In that case, Tyler and two bodyguards had videotaped themselves in sex acts with Tyler’s hairstylist. The prosecutor in that case, Sue Bernie, said in 2003 that the woman told investigators that Tyler accused her of stealing $80,000 worth of his checks and told her he would not go to police if she did something “degrading.” The woman denied stealing any money, Bernie said. A letter in court records before Tyler's sentencing stated that he had paid the woman $350,000. His lawyer said he doesn't know what the woman who is now accusing Tyler allegedly was robbed of, but the criminal damage charge accuses him of breaking the band of her Apple watch. Pearce represented Tyler on rape and kidnapping charges that prosecutors in northwest Louisiana dropped in December 2020. Those charges, brought in 2017, had kept Tyler jailed nearly 18 months before he was released on $3 million bond. “People keep saying it's his third time to be charged” with rape, Pearce said, but Tyler pleaded guilty to a lesser charge in Baton Rouge. “And in Caddo Parish, after a grand jury indicted him, they un-indicted him.” Mystikal told The Associated Press in April 2021 that he used to be “a nasty lil’ rapper” but now is proud of lyrics he can imagine rapping to God.