Rihanna Erupts As jury Delivers Verdict in A$AP Rocky Shooting Case Of Face 24 years in Prison
Rihanna’s boyfriend, rapper A$AP Rocky, has been found not guilty of shooting a former friend during an altercation in Hollywood in 2021.
The three-time Grammy nominee, 36, was charged with two felony counts of assault with a semiautomatic firearm against his former friend, Terell Ephron, known as A$AP Relli.
Once close, the pair were members of the A$AP Mob crew while at high school in New York, but the relationship broke down after Rocky became famous.
Rihanna erupted in tears as the not guilty verdicts were read out on Tuesday. A$AP Rocky, who faced up to 24 years in prison if convicted, ran over and dived into her arms after being spared from a lengthy jail sentence.
‘Thanks y’all for saving my life,’ a jubilant A$AP Rocky told the jury, composed of seven women and five men, as he left the courtroom. He was later seen enjoying a celebratory dinner with Rihanna in Beverly Hills.
During the three-week trial, Relli testified that Rocky, real name Rakim Athelston Mayers, fired two shots from a handgun, grazing his knuckles.
The rapper’s lawyer, Joe Tacopina, argued he was actually carrying a prop gun incapable of firing real bullets – and branded Relli an angry pathological liar’ who ‘committed perjury again and again and again and again’ during the trial.
It was not immediately clear whether the verdict was reached because the jury believed he was carrying a prop gun, or that he acted in self-defence.
Jurors began their deliberations on Tuesday after three weeks of testimony and arguments. It took them about three hours to reach a unanimous decision.
They had been instructed by Judge Mark S Arnold they could find Rocky not guilty if they deemed he was acting in self-defense.
Rihanna took to Instagram Stories Tuesday evening with an uplifting message after the verdict was read out.
‘THE GLORY BELONGS TO GOD AND GOD ALONE!’ the We Found Love artist said. ‘THANKFUL, HUMBLED BY HIS MERCY!’
The musical artist was emotional as he embraced his lawyers after the verdict was read.
Before going into the trial, Harlem-born Rocky had declined an offer from prosecutors of a six-month jail sentence and probation.
Under that offer, the rapper would have had to plead guilty to one count in the case, the AP reported.
During the trail, prosecutors in the case said A$AP Rocky shot twice at his former pal A$AP Relli.
Relli testified in the LA courtroom that he was unharmed in the shooting, aside from a bullet grazing his knuckle.
But he was slammed by Rocky’s defense attorney Mr Tacopina in closing arguments, who branded him ‘an angry pathological liar’ who ‘committed perjury again and again and again and again’ during the trial.
Arguing Relli had fabricated his account, the defense attorney told the court: ‘This case is about one man’s jealousy, lies and greed, and that man is not Rocky. That man is Terell Ephron.
A$AP Rocky’s legal team said that the shots the rapper fired were actually blanks from a prop gun he obtained from the set of a music video he was working on, the AP reported.
The jury was instructed by the court that under the law, A$AP Rocky could not be found guilty, if they found him to be defending himself in the incident.
Rihanna had drawn attention during her outings to the court to support her boyfriend, who she shares two children with: RZA, two, and Riot Rose, one.
In multiple outings, the What’s My Name? singer was seated between A$AP Rocky’s mother Renee Black and sister Erika B. Mayers.
The Diamonds artist had brought their young children to the court for closing arguments in the felony case.
The fashion mogul, who founded the company Fenty Beauty, was mentioned multiple times as attorneys conducted jury selection, amid speculation how her larger-than-life presence could sway jurors.
Following the verdict, jurors were led out of the courtroom and didn’t talk to the media as they departed, the AP reported.
It was not immediately clear what specifically compelled them to find him not guilty – be it the presence of the prop gun or his claims of acting in self-defense.
A$AP Rocky’s attorney Mr Tacopina said jurors ‘saw through this mirage of a case’ in their swift verdict.
The attorney noted that the rapper ‘turned down a plea for almost no jail time because he was innocent.’
Deputy District Attorney John Lewin told jurors in closing arguments to disregard the presence of Rihanna amid the trial.
Lewin added he believed that the SOS songstress brought their children to the legal proceedings to sway the jury toward a not guilty verdict.
‘You are not allowed to consider how this might affect Rihanna and his kids,’ Lewin told jurors. ‘We are all responsible for our own actions in the world.’
After the verdict, Tacopina said outside the courthouse that ‘Rocky did not want her here, I will tell you that.’
Lewin told jurors: ‘You are not allowed to consider how this might affect Rihanna and his kids – we are all responsible for our own actions in the world.’
Defense lawyer Tacopina pushed back on the assertion, saying A$AP Rocky ‘did not want her here’ there in the first place.
A$AP Rocky ‘wanted to shield [Rihanna] from’ the emotionally-draining court proceedings, Tacopina said, quoting the Rolling Stones in adding that ‘wild horses couldn’t keep her away.’
A$AP Rocky had been more than a half-hour late in arriving for the verdict reading – and ‘looked shaken and tense as he waited for it,’ the AP reported.
His lawyer Tacopina said that ‘there was a moment when before we heard the words from the clerk, he didn´t know if he was going to be spending the next two decades in jail or going home.’
Tacopina said A$AP Rocky’s physical reaction to the verdict – leaping in celebration toward Rihanna after hearing he was legally cleared – was ‘insane’ in a wonderful way.
‘I didn´t know how athletic he was,’ Tacopina said. ‘That was raw emotion, you guys got to see that. Even for us it was insane.’
Rocky and Rihanna had to fight through a crush of photographers, reporters, YouTubers and fans to get into a waiting SUV outside the courthouse after the verdict.
‘This whole experience has been crazy for the past four years,’ Rocky said amid the mob scene. ‘I’m thankful and it’s blessed to be here right now to be a free man talking to y’all.’
District Attorney Nathan J. Hochman’s office released a statement on Instagram after A$AP Rocky was cleared in the case.
‘While today’s verdict is not the outcome we sought, we respect the jury’s decision and the integrity of our justice system,’ Hochman said. ‘Our office remains committed to seeking accountability for those who break the law, no matter their status or influence.
Hochman said that Hollywood celebrities should not expect special treatment if they break the law.
‘Fame does not place anyone above the law, and we will not waver in our pursuit of justice for victims and the community,’ Hochman said.
Hochman wrapped up in saying: ‘Our mission remains clear: to uphold the law, protect public safety, and ensure justice for all.’
During the three-week trial, the court heard how Rocky and Ephron had been friends since they were teenagers in a group called ASAP Mob that started in New York in 2005.
Their relationship deteriorated over the years and by the time of the alleged shooting on November 6 2021, ‘there was a lot of tension between them’.
After exchanging hostile texts, the two agreed to meet near the W Hotel in Hollywood where Rocky showed up with two other friends, ASAP 12vvt and A$AP Illz.
Rocky and Ephron got into a shoving match, the court heard.
‘Mr. Mayers pointed a gun at Mr Ephron’s chest, threatened him and said “I’m going to kill you”,’ said Deputy District Attorney Paul Przelomiec, as he showed the court a surveillance video of the two confronting each other and Rocky holding a gun which he shoves into his waistband.
When Rocky and the two others walked away, Ephron followed ‘yelling and screaming’ at his ex buddy and about another block later they get into another altercation.
Pzelomiec showed another, very grainy video taken from a different surveillance camera, in which two figures he said were Rocky and Ephron can be seen and two gunshots can be heard on the audio.
The prosecutor then showed the court photos of Ephron’s bloody hand where he said he was hit by bullets fired in the shooting.
Cops alerted by 911 calls didn’t find any any victim or evidence at the scene but, said Pzelomiec, Ephron returned to the scene and found two spent shell casings which he handed int to the police two days later.
Przelomiec added that when police searched Rocky’s home in April 2022, in his bedroom closet they found a magazine for a semi-automatic pistol loaded with six live rounds. But no gun was found.
He poured scorn on the defense attorneys claim that the weapon involved in the shooting was a ‘prop gun or starter pistol.’
‘Don’t leave you common sense at the door,’ he told jurors.
In his opening statement to jurors, Rocky’s lawyer, Joe Tacopina painted Terell ‘A$AP Relli’ Ephron as a ‘parasite’ motivated by a civil lawsuit he’s brought against Rocky in which he’s asking for $30 million.
‘He is a proven criminal and perjurer. He lies about everything in this case,’ the attorney told the court. ‘The evidence is going to make clear that he is trying to extort money from Rocky.’
Tacopina said Relli was ‘resentful and angry’ over the greater musical success of his one-time teenage pal and band-mate Rocky ‘and he embarked on a dangerous course of action.’
Hearing that Rocky didn’t pay for the funeral of a mutual friend, ‘Relli was furious – he threatened physical violence against Rocky,’ he went on.
‘But he was wrong – Rocky did pay for the funeral,’ added Tacopina who said that before his encounter with Rocky in Hollywood on November 6 2021, Relli ‘was angry and it was he who was the one looking for a fight that night.’
Tacopina slammed the prosecution’s ‘exaggerated’ claims from a video that Ricky stuck a gun in Relli’s stomach and pointed it at his chest, saying there was ‘no video evidence’ of that happening.
And he described Relli as the ‘aggressor,’ saying the video showed Relli was pulling Rocky, Rocky was not pushing Relli.’
‘The object Relli claims was a firearm was nothing more than a prop gun… used in movies and music videos… and to scare off attackers.’
Tacopina said that Rocky had been the victim of attacks in the past – one in which his face was slashed – and his security advised him to carry the prop gun, which had been used several months earlier in a music video Rocy made with Rihanna.
‘Rocky is licensed by the state of California to carry a firearm but he did not want to carry a real gun.’
After their first encounter where Rocky was caught on camera with a gun in his hand and waistband, he, A$AP 12vvy and A$AP Illz walked away from Relli, ‘trying to get away from him.’
‘Relli followed them, pursuing them,’ said Tacopina who told the jury that Relli’s ‘anger and hatred boiled over’ and he started attacking and punching Illz, who is much smaller.
‘He was pummeling Ills and Rocky used the prop gun to defend him. He fired the prop gun twice, hoping to scare off Relli.’
Later that night, said Tacopina, Relli ‘hatched his extortion plan by attempting to fabricate evidence.’
Relli returned to the scene of the shooting an hour later and found two spent shell casings which he didn’t hand in to the police till two days later, said the lawyer – who threw doubt on Relli’s story saying ‘seven police officers came to the scene (before Reli returned that night) and found nothing.
‘There were no shell casings. No bullet fragments, no damage to cars, no broken windows. There was no evidence of a real gun being fired.
‘The evidence will show that Reli fabricated those shell casings to extort Rocky. There was no real gun.’
As for the prosecution’s photos of blood on Relli’s hand, Tacopina said that was most likely caused by scraping his knuckles on the pavement.
‘$30 million for a knucklehead scrape,’ he sniffed. ‘Those scrapes are no more proof of a real gunshot than those shell casing are.’
Tacopina said that Relli only handed the shell casings to cops two days later because the attorney he asked to handle his lawsuit against Rocky would only take the case if he reported the assault to the police.
The defense attorney also said that the shell casings found at the scene by Relli were a different brand from the ones in the magazine of live rounds found during a search of Rocky’s home.
A$AP Rocky, whose recent singles include Highjack, Tailor Swif and Ruby Rosary, has a busy slate professionally following the conclusion of the case.
Next month, he will be at the Rolling Loud music festival in Los Angeles, as he’s one of the principle headliners along with Playboi Carti and Peso Pluma.
This May, he’s slated to be a celebrity co-chair at the Met Gala, where Rihanna has made for multiple memorable moments in the past.
He also appears this summer in the upcoming Spike Lee motion picture Highest 2 Lowest, along with an impressive cast headlined by Denzel Washington and featuring Jeffrey Wright, Dean Winters and Ice Spice.
The consensus among social media users after the verdict was that Tuesday’s win was another in a long string of victories A$AP Rocky has piled up both personally and professionally.
‘Oh wow, look at me, I’m ASAP Rocky—I’m a successful rapper, I dress like I was born in a Vogue cover shoot, I’m literally in a long-term relationship with Rihanna herself, we have two beautiful kids, and I just beat a case,’ said one user. ‘Okay, we get it. Leave some W’s for the rest of us, smh.’
Others praised the calculated risk that paid off by refusing the plea deal. Said one user: ‘All the Twitter attorneys in shambles. ‘Why he ain’t just take the 6 months’ heada**.’
Another added, ‘Congrats to A$AP Rocky! He took a gamble not accepting that plea deal. Now Rihanna & Rocky can have another baby lol.’
Others agreed, with one user noting: ‘Oh she def getting pregnant ���� Love it for them. My girls been through a lot.’
Another user used a Rugrats GIF to compare to Rihanna’s spirited reaction to the good news, saying, ‘rihanna screaming in the background’ with a trio of laughing emojis.
A$AP ‘Rocky ‘turned into Superman after hearing that verdict,’ another joked, while one user praised the stellar handling of the case from Tacopina and his team, saying that A$AP Rocky ‘probably had some of the best lawyers money could buy.’
A$AP Rocky’s acquittal also caught the attention of Kanye West, who retweeted a news story about the case.
