Tory Lanez Sues California Prison for $100M Over Stabbing

Rapper Tory Lanez filed a federal lawsuit on Tuesday seeking $100 million in damages from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, along with the warden and guards at a state prison in Tehachapi, claiming they failed to protect him from a brutal stabbing attack by a fellow inmate last year.

Lanez, whose legal name is Daystar Peterson, alleged in the suit that he was housed with inmate Santino Casio despite known risks, leading to an unprovoked assault on May 12, 2025. According to the lawsuit, Casio stabbed Peterson 16 times in the back, torso, head and face using a homemade shank, causing a collapsed lung that required him to be airlifted to a hospital. The rapper, 33, argued that correctional officers responded slowly and did not deploy measures such as flash grenades or smoke bombs to intervene. He further claimed that his high-profile status as a celebrity made him a target, yet officials placed him in the same cell as Casio, who is serving a life sentence for second-degree murder and first-degree attempted murder, with prior convictions in 2008 for assault by a prisoner with a deadly weapon and in 2018 for manufacturing a deadly weapon.