The 55-year-old artist, whose legal name is Michael Lawrence Tyler, received his sentence on Tuesday for the 2022 assault of a woman at his Prairieville home. The victim appeared in court and delivered a harrowing account of the attack, describing how Mystikal choked her, forcibly raped her, and pulled braids from her hair. She explicitly asked the judge to impose the maximum punishment.
Mystikal’s response to the victim’s testimony was striking. “If I did that to you, I deserve the max sentence,” he told the courtroom. The judge obliged, sentencing him to 20 years, five years less than the 25-year maximum for third-degree rape.
The sentence stems from a March 2026 guilty plea, in which Mystikal accepted a reduced charge of third-degree rape. The original charges included first-degree rape, which carries an automatic life sentence. But in a dramatic twist, the rapper filed a motion just days before sentencing to withdraw his guilty plea.
The motion claimed he “did not have sufficient opportunity to fully consider the consequences” of his confession and was “under significant emotional distress and felt substantial pressure to make an immediate decision”. The judge dismissed the motion, allowing the sentencing to proceed.
This is not the first time the New Orleans native has faced serious charges. In 2003, Mystikal pleaded guilty to sexual battery and served six years in prison. He was required to register as a sex offender upon his release.
He also faced rape and kidnapping charges in 2017, though those were ultimately dismissed by a grand jury in 2020. With this latest conviction, the rapper’s career, once highlighted by Grammy nominations for hits like “Shake Ya Ass”, has come to a definitive halt. He is currently held without bond at the Ascension Parish Jail.
