The musician A$AP Rocky has been found not guilty of shooting a former friend after an altercation in Hollywood in 2021, sparing him from a potentially decades-long prison sentence.
A Los Angeles jury on Tuesday acquitted him of two felony counts of assault with a semiautomatic firearm.
After the verdict was read, the 36-year-old hip-hop star dove into the gallery to hug his longtime partner, Rihanna, and expressed his gratitude to the jurors as they left the courtroom.
“Thank y’all for saving my life,” he said.
The verdict follows a more than two week trial during which the alleged victim, whose stage name is A$AP Relli, testified that Rocky fired two shots from a handgun at him, grazing his knuckles.
The trial began on 24 January, after Rocky, born Rakim Athelston Mayers, turned down a plea offer before the proceedings, insisting he was innocent. If he had been found guilty, Rocky could have faced up to 24 years in prison.
Before the jury’s ruling, Rocky’s longtime partner, the superstar singer Rihanna, attended closing arguments with the couple’s toddlers, two-year-old RZA Athelston Mayers and one-year-old Riot Rose Mayers.
Rocky’s defense attorney Joe Tacopina, who also represented Donald Trump in lawsuits with Stormy Daniels and E Jean Carroll, argued that Rocky had fired a prop gun, which he had taken from the set of a music video for security reasons.
Tacopina cast Relli as a jealous opportunist, saying that Relli had only reported the incident so he could file a subsequent civil case against Rocky. In text messages and phone calls recorded by a mutual friend, Relli said he was going to take Rocky for millions. Relli testified the calls were faked, but the prosecution played long excerpts during closing arguments.
During witness testimony, which concluded on Tuesday without Rocky taking the stand, prosecutors argued that the hip-hop star fired at Relli, whose legal name is Terell Ephron.
“Mr Ephron wants to get paid,” deputy district attorney Paul Przelomiec said, “because he was the victim of a real crime by a real gun.”
Rocky and Relli were both members of a New York hip hop group called the A$AP Mob, and remained friends after Rocky gained global fame with No 1 albums in 2012 and 2013.
But, by the time the two reunited on 6 November 2021, their friendship had soured. Upon meeting outside a Hollywood hotel, the pair scuffled. Moments later, Rocky fired the shots, which Relli said grazed his knuckles.
During the trial, Relli testified that he believed the gun was real and described Rocky pointing it at him before walking away. Relli told jurors that he shouted at Rocky as he walked after him, then Rocky pulled the gun again and held it in the air.
“He turned around and then it was like, boom!” Relli said. “The whole thing was like a movie, he kind of like pointed down and he shot the first shot.” He said he felt a burning on his hand where a bullet grazed it.
Another member of the hip hop group, A$AP Twelvyy, testified that he had been present for the encounter and that Rocky had fired the shots as a warning to stop Relli from attacking another member of the crew.
Twelvyy testified that Rocky fired blanks from the prop gun, and that everyone involved knew it was a fake.
Neither side produced a gun as evidence, and despite more than three years passing, the defense did not say the gun was fake until the beginning of trial, which Przelomiec said “defies all reason”.
Jurors were also shown video surveillance of the altercation and heard testimony from a witness who claimed to hear the shooting from the seventh floor of a nearby apartment building.
Jurors were not supposed to be aware of the possible 24-year sentence Rocky faced, but Rocky’s tour manager, Lou Levin, mentioned the length of the possible sentence during his testimony. The judge told the jury to disregard the statement, but prosecutors said they believed the slip was intentional.
The Associated Press contributed
