Rapper Mystikal, real name Michael Tyler, has been sentenced to 20 years in prison after pleading guilty to raping a woman in 2022 at his Louisiana home.
The victim, who was in court on Tuesday, requested that the judge give the maximum sentence, according to WBRZ. Addressing the court, she said that Tyler had punched her, puller braids out of her hair, and forcibly raped her.
Following the victim’s address, Tyler told those in the courtroom, “If I did that to you, I deserve the max sentence.” The rapper was then sentenced to 20 years for third-degree rape.
In 2022, Tyler was arrested and later charged with first-degree rape, simple robbery, domestic-abuse battery, and false imprisonment. At the time, he pleaded not guilty to the charges and was scheduled to begin trial in March. However, before the trial, he entered a plea agreement, pleading guilty to lesser third-degree rape charges, a result of a deal that reduced the rapper’s potential sentence (the initial first-degree rape charge would have carried an automatic life sentence).
The victim alleged in 2022 that Tyler had sexually assaulted her and held her against her will. At a hearing in August 2022, Sheriff’s Detective Garrett Keith testified that a female acquaintance of Tyler’s visited his home on the evening of July 30 to discuss an alleged financial agreement. Keith testified that the woman reported an abrupt change in Tyler’s behavior, citing that he became violent before allegedly sexually assaulting her. He was held without bond, due to his previous criminal history.
Tyler was previously convicted of sexual battery after assaulting his hairstylist in 2003, which resulted in a six years prison sentence for the offense before being released in 2010. In 2017, he faced a different sexual-assault case that carried charges of first-degree rape and second-degree kidnapping. The charges were ultimately dismissed by a grand jury in December 2020 due to the discovery of additional evidence.
