Rapper Mystikal has been sentenced to 20 years in a Louisiana prison after being convicted of third-degree rape.
The Grammy-nominated performer, whose real name is Michael Tyler, learned his sentence Tuesday after the woman at the center of the case spoke in court about the assault.
Tyler, 55, was arrested in 2022 after the injured woman identified him to detectives while she was at the hospital.
During Tuesday’s hearing, the woman described being beaten, choked and assaulted. She urged the judge to give Tyler the harshest sentence possible.
“If I did that to you, I deserve the max sentence,” Tyler replied in court.
The third-degree rape conviction carried a maximum sentence of 25 years and does not allow early release.
Tyler had initially faced a far more serious first-degree rape charge, which carried a possible life sentence. That charge was reduced in March as part of a plea deal.
Days before sentencing, his attorney tried to withdraw the plea, but that effort failed.
The original charges against Tyler included first-degree rape, robbery, strangulation and false imprisonment.
The 2022 assault happened at his home in Prairieville, Louisiana, about 18 miles outside Baton Rouge.
This is not the first time Tyler has served time for a sex crime.
He previously spent six years in prison after pleading guilty in a 2003 sexual battery case. He remains on the sex offender registry.
The new sentence means the rapper, once known for his high-energy hits and Grammy-nominated career, will now spend the next two decades behind bars.