Rapper Mystikal Sentenced to 20 Years in Rape Case

Rapper Mystikal has been sentenced to 20 years in prison after pleading guilty to raping a woman at his Louisiana home in 2022.

The victim appeared before the court on Tuesday and asked for the maximum sentence, according to WBRZ. She spoke of the incident where Mystikal “choked her, pulled braids out of her hair and forcibly raped her.” After she spoke, the rapper told the courtroom, “If I did that to you, I deserve the max sentence.”

Mystikal, whose real name is Michael Tyler, was arrested in 2022 for first-degree rape and false imprisonment. This past March, he pleaded guilty to lesser charges of third-degree rape. According to WBRZ, he filed a motion this past Friday to withdraw his plea because he “did not have sufficient opportunity to fully consider the consequences” before confessing to the crime. The filing stated that he was “under significant emotional distress and felt substantial pressure to make an immediate decision.”

The rapper, best known for the hits “Shake Ya Ass” and “Danger (Been So Long),” was arrested in 2022 on accusations of beating, choking and robbing a woman at his home in Ascension Parish. The victim, who was not named in the report, said he took her keys and phone and raped her while she searched for the money he had taken. He then allowed her to leave after forcing her to send him money via CashApp.

The 55-year-old would have been facing a life sentence had he been convicted of initial charges that included first-degree rape, simple criminal damage to property, domestic abuse battery by strangulation, simple robbery, and false imprisonment in the assault.

Mystikal faced similar domestic abuse charges in 2004 after sexually assaulting his hairstylist and subsequently spent six years in prison. In 2012, he was jailed for three months on misdemeanor domestic abuse charges, and five years later, he was charged with rape and kidnapping before the case was dropped.