A$AP Rocky found not guilty in assault trial in Los Angeles

A jury found rapper A$AP Rocky not guilty of two felony counts of assault with a semiautomatic firearm Tuesday following a nearly month-long trial in Los Angeles. 

Screams were heard inside the courtroom upon the reading of the verdict as Rocky ran to the back of the room to hug his longtime partner, Rihanna, who appeared inside the court on multiple occasions throughout the trial. Rocky, whose legal name is Rakim Mayers, had faced up to 24 years in prison if convicted of all charges.

At the start of the trial last month, he rejected a plea deal which carried a sentence of 180 days in jail. 

“We said from day one, he was innocent. He turned down a plea for almost no jail time because he was innocent,” Joe Tacopina, his defense attorney, told reporters outside the Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center in downtown LA, where photographers swarmed Rocky and Rihanna following the verdict. “We’re honored to have represented this amazing family.”

Jurors had deliberated for just about three hours before reaching the verdict. 

Prosecutors had alleged Rocky shot in the direction of his former friend, Terell Ephron, near a Hollywood hotel in 2021. Ephron, another former member of the hip hop collective A$AP Mob who previously went by A$AP Relli, has said he was left with bullet-graze wounds above his knuckles. He testified that Rocky had allegedly threatened to kill him the same night.

The defense accused Ephron of fabricating evidence, committing perjury and attempting to extort Rocky, saying the rapper had a prop gun that only fired blanks which he carried around for security. 

Rocky had pleaded not guilty to both counts and maintained his innocence through statements by his attorneys. 

Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman released a statement on behalf of the prosecution after Tuesday’s verdict. 

“While today’s verdict is not the outcome we sought, we respect the jury’s decision and the integrity of our justice system,” Hochman said in the statement. “Our office remains committed to seeking accountability for those who break the law, no matter their status or influence. Fame does not place anyone above the law, and we will not waver in our pursuit of justice for victims and the community.”

As closing arguments got underway late last week, Rihanna appeared inside the downtown LA courtroom with the couple’s 2-year-old and 1-year-old sons with her for the first time, the Associated Press reported. 

A$AP Rocky stands trial in Los Angeles

Prosecutors alleged Rocky pointed a semiautomatic firearm at Ephron before opening fire during a later confrontation on the evening of Nov. 6, 2021. During the first week of the trial, Ephron testified that Rocky said, “I’ll kill you right now,” as he pointed a gun at him, saying it was pointed “like towards my stomach, like towards like my head and shoulder.” 

While he said he couldn’t remember certain details, he told jurors Rocky had moved the gun as he pointed it, saying “He was looking for a spot to shoot me.”

“So I see Rocky turn around, and when he turned around, he’s like,” Ephron said as he mimicked the gesture he says Rocky made with the gun, raising his arm into the air while pointing his fingers downward. “Kinda looked like a movie. The whole thing looked like a movie.”

The former friends were near the intersection of Argyle and Selma avenues, an area of Hollywood just around the corner from the Walk of Fame, when prosecutors say Rocky opened fire. 

Ephron testified he was left with bullet-graze wounds just above his knuckles which he later sought medical treatment for. 

“When he shot the first shot, I felt my hand hot,” he told jurors from the witness stand last month, saying he grabbed another person there that night and “used him as a shield” to try dodging the gunfire. “I’m just trying to like not get hit at this point,” Ephron said.

He testified he went back to the area later that night, after Los Angeles Police Department officers had responded to the scene, and collected shell casings he claims were fired by the gun. “But I ended up going back and getting the actual bullets myself,” he said, saying he brought a paper bag to collect them and took photos of them.

“It wasn’t hard for me to find the bullets because I knew exactly where I got shot at,” he said.

Tacopina, Rocky’s defense attorney, told jurors that Ephron fabricated that evidence and committed perjury during his testimony, describing him as a “pathological liar” during the trial. Tacopina told jurors that several police officers had responded to the scene before Ephron returned, saying they carried out a thorough search and never came across shell casings.

“What you’ll learn is that Relli returned to that scene an hour later,” Tacopina said of Ephron, referring to him by his former artist name of A$AP Relli. “And he attempted to fabricated evidence… This is some offensive stuff.”

One of the defense witnesses testified to seeing Rocky with the starter pistol, which only fired blanks, on three occasions. A$AP Twelvyy, another former member of the A$AP Mob collective and longtime friend of Rocky, said the rapper carried around the fake gun as a means of security. The felony charges Rocky faces do not apply if there was no real semiautomatic firearm involved.

The defense has argued the rapper could also be found not guilty on the basis of self defense. Both the prosecution and defense has agreed that Rocky and two other men who were with him that night walked away after the first of two confrontations in Hollywood on the evening of Nov. 6, 2021, and that Relli followed them before the second confrontation. However, prosecutors have argued Rocky was the aggressor when he allegedly pulled out the gun and then allegedly opened fire during the second incident.

While arguing that Ephron attempted to extort Rocky, the defense presented recordings which a witness for the defense, Wally Sajimi, testified he made in 2022. On the recording, a voice resembling Ephron’s says he will accept being paid to stop taking part in the case against Rocky. “Once I walk away, when I get my cash, the case will get way weaker,” the voice on the recording says. 

But prosecutors have said Ephron’s testimony in court was consistent with what he told Sajimi during a recorded conversation — that the Grammy-nominated rapper had opened fire with a real gun.

“Mr. Ephron wants to be paid because he was the victim of a real crime by a real gun,” Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney Paul Przelomiec told jurors last week. “In that couple minutes, he tells the exact same details that he told you when he testified in this case.”

“That’s evidence they created. That’s their person trying to trick Mr. Ephron, trying to get Mr. Ephron to say something damaging, say something that’s gonna undermine this case,” Przelomiec said of the recording submitted as evidence by the defense.

During closing arguments, Przelomiec told jurors that witnesses who testified for the defense never told law enforcement that Rocky had a fake gun that night when the investigation first got underway. He said the prop gun was only brought up more than two years after the alleged shooting, when those witnesses spoke with Rocky’s defense attorneys.

“The idea that they would not be running into the police station to tell their story is absurd,” Przelomiec said of the defense witnesses.

Meanwhile, the defense has honed in on what they allege is a lack of credibility in the prosecution’s key witness. 

Tacopina told jurors during closing arguments last week that aside from Ephron’s testimony, the prosecution’s evidence “consists of video, shell casings and knuckle scrapes,” saying the videos alone do not prove the defendant’s guilt and the shell casings were fabricated evidence.

“They mean nothing without believing his story,” Tacopina said.