Mystikal Sentenced to 20 Years in Louisiana Rape Case

Michael Tyler, known as Mystikal, was sentenced to 20 years in prison Tuesday in Ascension Parish, Louisiana, after pleading guilty to third-degree rape in a 2022 case. The sentence is the maximum allowed under the lesser charge, which Tyler agreed to in March in a deal that averted a life term on the original first-degree rape indictment.

At the sentencing hearing, the victim addressed the court and asked for the harshest penalty, describing how Tyler choked her, pulled braids from her hair, and forcibly raped her. “If I did that to you, I deserve the max sentence,” Tyler told the courtroom, according to WBRZ.

Just days before the hearing, Tyler’s attorney filed an emergency motion to withdraw the guilty plea, arguing that Tyler had been under significant emotional distress and had not fully considered the consequences. The court moved ahead with sentencing.

The conviction adds another chapter to a long record of sexual and domestic violence. Tyler served six years starting in 2004 for sexual battery and extortion, was registered as a sex offender, and was jailed for three months in 2012 on misdemeanor domestic abuse charges. He was arrested again for rape in 2017 and held nearly two years before being released when the charge was dropped for insufficient evidence. The 2022 case marks the first time since his 2004 conviction that a sexual assault charge has led to a prison sentence.