Louisiana
Rapper Mystikal sentenced to 20 years in Louisiana rape case
NEW ORLEANS — The rapper Mystikal, who received multiple Grammy nominations in the early 2000s, will serve 20 years in prison for raping a woman at his Louisiana home in 2022.
Mystikal, whose given name is Michael Lawrence Tyler, pleaded guilty to third-degree rape in March with a sentencing cap of 20 years, five years less than the maximum punishment for the crime. His plea deal reduced the charge from first-degree rape, which carries an automatic life sentence.
Days before his Tuesday sentencing hearing, he asked a judge to withdraw his guilty plea, saying he “did not have sufficient opportunity to fully consider the consequences,” according to ABC affiliate WBRZ.
The victim spoke in court before sentencing and asked the judge to give Mystikal the maximum sentence, WBRZ reported. She reportedly said the rapper had punched her, choked her, pulled out her braids and forcibly raped her at his home in Prairieville, about 18 miles from Baton Rouge.
“If I did that to you, I deserve the max sentence,” he said in response, according to the local TV station.
A lawyer for the rapper did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Mystikal has been held without bond at the Ascension Parish Jail since his arrest in 2022.
The Louisiana rapper rose to national recognition in the 1990s and is known for his 2000 hit “Shake Ya A–,” which was nominated for a Grammy in the best rap solo performance category.
In 2003, he pleaded guilty to sexual battery and was sentenced to six years in prison. That same year, he was a Grammy nominee in two categories: best rap album for “Tarantula” and best male rap solo performance for his single “Bouncin’ Back (Bumpin’ Me Against the Wall).”
New Orleans area residents and officials on Tuesday made preparations for a potential major rain event, distributing sandbags and warning of localized flooding in the region as a tropical disturbance brewed near Corpus Christi, Texas.
National Hurricane Center forecasters give the storm — which as of Tuesday morning was dubbed Potential Tropical Cyclone One — a 70% chance of developing into a tropical storm in the next two days, possibly as early as Wednesday morning. The storm is “fairly close to transitioning into a tropical depression,” according to Eric Blake, a senior hurricane specialist with the National Hurricane Center.
If it does, it will become Tropical Storm Arthur, the first named storm of this year’s hurricane season.
The worst case, forecasters warned on Tuesday afternoon, is that some areas could see 20 inches of rain through Thursday, though five to ten inches is the more likely forecast in most of the storm’s path. The heaviest rain in Louisiana is expected in a band around the Baton Rouge and Lafayette areas, as well as along a swath of the northshore, which are forecast to see more rain than New Orleans. A moderate risk of flash flooding extends in a wide band from Corpus Christi to Atlanta.
Even if this storm doesn’t earn a name, rainfall is expected to be heavy along the Louisiana coast. Residents should expect some coastal and potentially dangerous flash flooding by midweek, forecasters said.
Terrin pellerin, left and Jon Pucheu prepare sand bags at the Eastbank Bridge Park ahead of the gulf disturbance in Destrehan, Tuesday, June 16, 2026.
“Whether or not it becomes a tropical cyclone, the biggest hazard is going to be the rainfall, and potentially flooding along the Gulf Coast,” said Robbie Berg, a warning coordination meteorologist with the National Hurricane Center in Miami. “That hazard is going to occur regardless of whether it gets the name.”
It has also already earned the season’s first “cone of uncertainty” forecast track, and it’s aimed at the Louisiana-Texas border. The storm will keep heading northeast, moving offshore and gaining some strength over the Gulf’s hot waters. It will track the Texas coastline northward, increasing in speed gradually over the next few days.
While the storm is expected to bring heavy rain, it isn’t likely to bring especially strong winds to the New Orleans region. A flood watch is in effect for the entire region through Friday morning, with parts of the northshore facing flash flood warnings on Tuesday afternoon. Moderate storm surge of two to four feet is expected from the upper Texas coast to Morgan City.
The tropical storm warning extends from Sabine Pass to Morgan City, but doesn’t include Southeast Louisiana. A tropical storm watch is in effect for the upper Texas coast from Sargent to Sabine Pass.
Still, the weather service warns that “a tornado or two” is possible, anywhere from the upper Texas coast to the Florida Panhandle.
The New Orleans region prepares
Officials across the New Orleans region urged residents to make preparations and mobilized government resources to assist.
Emma Skillbred, a spokesperson at the New Orleans Office of Coordination and Emergency Management, said the city was in close touch with the National Weather Service and other agencies.
Their primary concern is heavy rain and localized flash flooding. They urged residents to avoid unnecessary travel and not to drive through flooded roads.
“Floodwaters are often deeper than they appear, and just a small amount of moving water can carry away a vehicle,” she said.
Sewerage & Water Board General Superintendent Kaitlin Tymrak asked residents to keep an eye on catch basins and sweep away any debris on the street surface to avoid having it run into storm drains. Catch basins clogged by debris can be reported to the city by calling 311.
“We monitor all of the underpass stations. Our crews go out and will typically do a cleaning of each underpass as well,” Tymrak said, describing storm preparations.
S&WB officials say the drainage system is generally able to handle one inch of rain in the first hour of a storm and half an inch thereafter. At least five storms have exceeded those thresholds since December 2023, resulting in widespread street flooding.
“If we were to get three inches in an hour, that would very likely overwhelm parts of our drainage system. We have a very robust system, but it can only handle so much based on its design,” Tymrak said.
Jefferson Parish officials also advised residents to make sure their storm drains are clear, and said that 196 of the parish’s 198 pumps are online. The two that are out of commission are the Harvey pump station and the Pailet pump station, but both have additional pumping capacity.
In St. Charles, St. John the Baptist, and St. Tammany parishes, sandbag distribution was already underway.
Not uncommon
It might feel early to have a storm develop in the Gulf, but Berg with the National Hurricane Center said it’s completely normal.
“We commonly see tropical cyclone development in the Gulf and off the southeast coast of the U.S.,” he said. “It is actually not that abnormal to have a storm form this time of year.”
Since 1950, there have been only four hurricane landfalls along the Gulf Coast in the month of June.
But named tropical storms swirling through the Gulf far before peak hurricane season are much more common. In the last two decades, there have been 16 named storms in the Gulf during the month of June.
Staff writers Ben Myers, Marco Cartolano, Lara Nicholson, Joni Hess, and Justin Mitchell contributed reporting.
This story was orginally published by the Louisiana Illuminator. Editor’s note from the Illuminator: The following commentary was submitted in response to a submission from Chad Hanks, “Farmer finds fears over carbon capture unwarranted,” June 9, 2026.
The recent defense of carbon capture and sequestration presents a familiar narrative: struggling farmers, economic opportunity and a promise that Louisiana’s future depends on embracing this new industry.
It is a compelling story. Unfortunately, it is also incomplete.
No one disputes that farming is difficult. Commodity prices fluctuate. Input costs rise. Families fight every day to hold onto land that’s been in their family for generations. As a Louisiana landowner myself, I understand those pressures.
But the question before Louisiana is not whether farmers deserve opportunities. It’s whether citizens should surrender their property rights, public resources and local control so multinational corporations can bury millions of tons of industrial waste beneath our communities.
Supporters of carbon capture and sequestration often frame opposition as fear, misinformation, or “Facebook rumors.” Yet many of the people asking questions are engineers, geologists, attorneys, landowners, elected officials and citizens who have spent years studying the permits, legislation, regulatory filings and financial incentives driving this industry.
What concerns us is an industrial-scale system that relies on eminent domain, taxpayer subsidies, government mandates, regulatory favoritism and the permanent alteration of Louisiana’s subsurface property rights.
If carbon capture and sequestration is such a profitable and beneficial industry, why does it require billions in federal tax credits? Why does it require state laws granting private corporations the power to expropriate private property? Why does it require immunity protections and limitations on liability? Why does it depend on government intervention at every stage?
The answer is simple: The economics do not work without government assistance and the transfer of risk from corporations to Louisiana citizens.
Supporters frequently compare carbon dioxide pipelines to traditional oil and gas pipelines. That comparison ignores important facts. Oil and gas pipelines transport products with immediate economic value. CO2 pipelines transport waste streams for permanent disposal.
Supporters also compare industrial CO2 pipelines to sparkling water and fire extinguishers. That comparison misses the point. The issue is not the small amounts of carbon dioxide found in consumer products. These projects involve massive volumes of compressed industrial CO₂ transported through high-pressure pipelines and injected underground for permanent storage. Citizens have every right to examine the risks, long-term liability, and emergency response challenges associated with that scale of operation.
The Satartia, Mississippi, pipeline rupture demonstrated how a carbon dioxide release can create a ground-hugging cloud capable of incapacitating an entire community. First responders found themselves unprepared.
This is not fear-mongering. It is documented reality.
Many of the corporations seeking to build carbon storage projects in Louisiana are headquartered outside our state. Investment funds, multinational corporations and consulting firms promoting these projects are largely outside the communities where the pipelines and injection wells will be located.
Meanwhile, many of the citizens raising concerns are Louisiana landowners, farmers, business owners and local residents funding their own efforts, attending meetings on their own time and fighting to protect their property rights and communities.
This is not a battle between Louisiana and outside activists. In many cases, it is Louisiana citizens asking hard questions about projects being advanced by out-of-state corporations, investors and special interests.
What is perhaps most troubling is the coordinated effort underway to manufacture public acceptance.
Across Louisiana, chambers of commerce, economic development organizations, industry-funded associations, universities and government agencies have joined together under what has been described as a “whole of Louisiana” approach. Citizens are repeatedly told carbon storage is inevitable, opposition is anti-business, and that Louisiana must choose between CO2 sequestration and economic prosperity.
This is not a grassroots movement. It is a coordinated public relations campaign.
Citizens are rarely told that many of the organizations promoting carbon capture and sequestration stand to benefit from industrial expansion, grants, consulting contracts and economic incentive programs tied directly to these projects.
Chad Hanks’ commentary argues that opposing CCS projects somehow infringes upon a willing landowner’s rights. But what about the neighboring landowner who refuses to participate? What about landowners facing pipeline expropriation? What about future generations who inherit the risks long after today’s executives, politicians and lobbyists have moved on?
Property rights must apply equally to everyone, not just those who sign contracts.
Louisiana’s strength has always been its people, its natural resources and its independent spirit. We should welcome honest economic development. We should encourage manufacturing, innovation and energy production.
But we should never accept the false choice that Louisiana must become the nation’s carbon waste repository in order to survive.
Citizens have every right to ask hard questions before surrendering property rights, public resources and local control to an industry that would not exist without massive government subsidies.
We can support farmers without sacrificing landowners.
We can create jobs without surrendering property rights.
We can pursue economic growth without turning Louisiana into a permanent storage site for the emissions of the world’s largest corporations.
That isn’t anti-business. That’s common sense.
Gary Musgrove is president of Save My Louisiana, a grassroots organization focused on protecting private property rights, landowner interests and Louisiana’s natural resources. He is a lifelong Louisiana resident, landowner, small business owner and retired U.S. Air Force veteran.
Related
Flash flood warning issued for northwest Louisiana
The National Weather Service (NWS) issued a Flash Flood Warning just after noon on June 15 for northwest Louisiana.
Courtesy of Bob Thames
The National Weather Service (NWS) in Shreveport issued a Flash Flood Warning just after noon Monday, June 15, for northwest Louisiana.
According to the NWS, Doppler radar indicated thunderstorms producing heavy rain and flash flooding for much of the region. The warning was initially issued until 3 p.m. but was extended until 3:45 p.m.
NWS said this flash flooding could impact small creeks and streams, urban areas, highways, streets and underpasses as well as other poor drainage and low-lying areas.
Shreveport Police Department is reporting that since the rain began this morning, officers have responded to 53 calls for stranded or disabled vehicles and are investigating 24 traffic crashes.
“We are asking motorists to use extreme caution if you must travel,” Shreveport Police Department Public Information Officer Cpl. Chris Bordelon said. “Never attempt to drive through flooded roadways or high water. It only takes a small amount of moving water to sweep a vehicle off the roadway.”
Central parts of Shreveport are being heavily impacted. Shreveport business owner Bob Thames said, “I drove from my office downtown to Marilynn’s Place to check on the building. I had to take several detours. Streets that I’ve never seen flooded before were flooded.”
He continued, “The rapids flowing through Betty Virginia were unlike anything I’ve seen in my time in Shreveport. Bayou Pierre was higher than I’ve ever seen it. I was on the sidewalk warning people not to drive through Fern and Greenway Place.”
Thames stated he witnessed multiple cars get damaged this afternoon.
The Shreveport Police Department is reminding drivers that if you don’t have to be on the roads, stay home until conditions improve.
Makenzie Boucher is a reporter with the Shreveport Times. Contact her at mboucher@gannett.com.
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