The rapper Mystikal has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for third-degree rape.
In March, the US musician born Michael Tyler pleaded guilty to the charge, having originally been charged with the more severe first-degree rape, along with simple robbery, domestic abuse battery and false imprisonment.
The unnamed victim told the court that Tyler had punched and choked her, torn out her braids and raped her while detaining her at his home in Louisiana. She said he took away her phone and car keys so she could not leave and sent himself money from her phone before allowing her to go.
Prior to sentencing, Tyler told the court: “If I did that to you, I deserve the max sentence.”
His guilty plea was reportedly part of a deal that reduced the overall case against him, which if convicted meant he would have faced mandatory life imprisonment.
A week prior to sentencing, however, Tyler attempted to withdraw his plea in a filing that said he was “under significant emotional distress and felt substantial pressure to make an immediate decision”. The motion was dismissed by the court.
In 2004, Tyler was sentenced to six years in prison after being found guilty of sexual assault and extortion, a conviction that required him to register as a sex offender.
In 2012, he was jailed for three months after being arrested for misdemeanour domestic abuse, a condition of the five-year probation from his previous imprisonment. In 2017, he was charged with rape and kidnapping and spent 18 months in jail before the case was dropped.
Mystikal had a huge hit in 2000 with Shake Ya Ass. He released an album that year, Let’s Get Ready, which made No 1 on the US album chart. He has scarcely released any music in the last decade and his last album of original material was Tarantula in 2001.
