Rapper Mystikal pleaded guilty to third-degree rape on Tuesday in an Ascension Parish courtroom in Gonzales, Louisiana, nearly three years after his arrest on charges that originally carried a mandatory life sentence.

The plea deal reduced the charges against the 55-year-old rapper, born Michael Lawrence Tyler. He had been indicted in 2022 on first-degree rape, simple robbery, domestic abuse battery by strangulation, false imprisonment, and simple criminal damage to property. Under the agreement, he pleaded to an amended charge of third-degree rape, capping his sentence at 20 years. A judge ordered a pre-sentence investigation, and sentencing is scheduled for June 6.

The case dates back to July 30, 2022, when Ascension Parish deputies responded to a local hospital after a woman reported a sexual assault. According to investigators, the victim arrived with visible injuries and identified Tyler as her attacker.

The woman told authorities that Tyler beat and choked her at his Prairieville, Louisiana, home. She said he took her phone and keys to prevent her from leaving, and that she was sexually assaulted while searching for money she believed he had stolen from her. After the assault, Tyler allegedly forced the woman to send him money via CashApp before allowing her to leave.

Tyler was arrested at his home and has been held without bail since.

Tuesday's conviction is not an isolated chapter. Tyler is a registered sex offender who pleaded guilty to sexual battery and extortion in 2003 after forcing his hairstylist into sex acts with him and two bodyguards. The incident was videotaped. He served six years in a Louisiana state prison and was released in 2010.

In 2012, he spent three months in jail after a domestic abuse arrest violated his probation. Then in 2017, Tyler was charged with first-degree rape and second-degree kidnapping after a woman accused him of assaulting her at a Shreveport casino. He spent roughly 18 months behind bars before posting a $3 million bond. A grand jury declined to indict him in December 2020, and those charges were dismissed.

His 2022 arrest marked the third time Tyler had faced sexual assault charges in less than two decades.