Content warning: The following article contains mentions of alleged instances of sexual assault.
Mystikal has pleaded guilty to third-degree rape for the alleged 2022 incident that he was on trial for.
The rapper, whose name is Michael Tyler, now faces up to 20 years in prison after he pleaded guilty in a Louisiana state courthouse. He’d originally been charged with first-degree rape, simple robbery, domestic abuse, battery, and false imprisonment. He previously pleaded not guilty to these and was scheduled for a trial date on Mar. 30.
Mystikal’s guilty plea came as part of a reported deal that reduced the severity of the charges against him. If he had originally been convicted of his previous charges, he would have been facing mandatory life imprisonment.
In 2022, Mystikal was indicted on a series of charges due to an alleged assault of a woman that took place at his home in Prairieville, Louisiana. The charges he faced included simple criminal damage to property, false imprisonment, domestic abuse battery by strangulation, simple robbery, possession of heroin, illegal possession of Xanax, possession of marijuana, possession of drug paraphernalia, and possession of methamphetamine.
The drug charges Mystikal faced came from the alleged victim, who claimed she saw a white crystalline-like substance in his home. Responding officers said that narcotics were recovered from the rapper’s home.
Mystikal’s accuser told investigators that he’d raped, choked, and beaten her. She also claimed that he took her car keys and phone to prevent her from leaving, and also forced her to send him money on CashApp.
In 2023, Master P called for Mystikal’s release at the Lovers & Friends Festival in Las Vegas, telling the audience to put their hands up in the crowd in support of him.
Last November, Mystikal was ordered to stay incarcerated until his trial date.
The rapper previously pleaded guilty to sexual battery and extortion charges in a different case in 2003 and was sentenced to six years in prison. In 2012, Mystikal spent three months in jail after an arrest on a misdemeanor domestic abuse count. Five years later, he was charged with kidnapping and rape before the case was ultimately dropped by authorties.