Rihanna Looks Tense As She Brings Her Sons To A$AP Rocky’s trial With Rapper Face 24 years in Prison
Rihanna was seen bringing her two children to watch the closing arguments at partner A$AP Rocky’s weapons assault trial in Los Angeles on Thursday.
The Diamonds songstress, 36 – who has appeared in the courtroom to support Rocky a total of five times – shares her sons RZA, two, and Riot, one, with the rapper, 36
The performer was seen arriving to the court in the rainy weather and was guided towards the entrance.
Security held umbrellas above the star and her kids to shield them from the downpour to support the music artist – who could face up to 24 years in prison for allegedly shooting his former friend A$AP Relli in 2021.
Rihanna donned a black, leather trench coat with a caped detail and slipped into a pair of tan, crocodile-embossed boots.
Her long, dark locks were parted in the middle, and effortlessly flowed down naturally past her shoulders.
Both her children could be seen wearing dark navy suits as they headed inside to also support their father.
Rocky – whose real name is Rakim Athelaston Mayers – was initially arrested in April 2022 after returning to L.A. following a trip to Barbados with Rihanna.
He is now facing two felony counts of assault with a semiautomatic weapon – but has pleaded not guilty.
Before opening statements last month in January, Rocky notably rejected a plea deal that would have had him serve six months in jail, along with a seven-year suspended sentence and three years of probation.
It was reported earlier this week that the rapper could possibly take the stand at the trial – but has since declined to do so in his own defense, per NBC News.
Mayers has claimed that he was holding a prop gun on the night of the alleged incident, which he carried with him for security reasons.
His lawyer, Joe Tacopina, has also backed up his client and alleged that the gun had been a starter pistol that only fired blanks.
Earlier this week on Monday, his tour manager became the second witness from Rocky’s inner circle to testify that he carried the phony gun.
Lou Levin said he told the rapper it made sense to carry it after Rocky’s house had been broken into by a stalker and others.
‘Security and I thought it would be a good idea, because of the prior violence,’ Levin said. ‘It’s just a nonlethal form of self-defense.’
Levin said he got the gun from a video shoot in the summer of 2021, about three months before the incident that led to the charges, and on the day itself.
He told the jury that he returned the phony gun to the music video’s co-director, who no longer had it when Levin asked about it after Rocky’s arrest. The defense said it does not have the starter pistol now.
Authorities also did not recover the pistol they allege Rocky used. Levin testified that an ammunition magazine found in Rocky’s house by officers serving a search warrant actually belonged to him.
Lewin, the prosecutor, said ‘you had to come up with a story’ to explain the magazine. He later called every aspect of the story ‘a lie.’
However, Levin said in response, ‘I didn’t have to come up with a story – it’s the truth.’
Prosecutors allege that on November 6, 2021, Mayers pointed a gun at his former friend during a confrontation, shooting at him and leaving him with minor injuries.
A$AP Relli, real name Terell Ephron, testified against Mayers at an earlier hearing, claiming that he held a gun to his stomach and threatened, ‘I’ll kill you right now,’ before firing at least four shots.
It is alleged that one of the shots hit Ephron’s hand, and that he reported the shooting the following day.
Two 9mm shell casings were recovered by Ephron after he returned to the scene of the alleged shooting, however police say the weapon Mayers allegedly fired was never found.
Ephron was a former friend and collaborator of Mayers. The pair struck up a friendship as teenagers while attending high school in New York.
He also said their friendship continued as Mayers’ fame grew, but began to decline when the D.M.B. music artist started backing out of business deals.
At pre-trial hearings in November, Mayers’ attorneys attempted to spare him a trial, arguing that surveillance video of the rapper holding a gun should not be permissible as evidence.
Prosecutors claim the video showed Mayers firing the weapon, which the rapper’s attorneys denied.
Detective Frank Flores of the Los Angeles Police Department testified at an earlier hearing that footage showed a gun in the rapper’s hand, but when pressed by the defense, he conceded a weapon was never recovered.
They were members of the A$AP collective, a group of students who made music and created art together. A$AP Mob, which stands for ‘Always Strive And Prosper,’ was established in 2005, with Rocky joining in 2007.
Following the closing arguments on Thursday, the jury will then begin their deliberations.
Rihanna first made an appearance inside the Los Angeles courtroom late last month – a few days after the trial officially kicked off.
At the time, a source explained to The U.S. Sun, ‘Rihanna arrived around 9:49 a.m. in a blacked-out SUV and met with two security guards who tried to throw everyone off and went down a side passageway out of the court.’
‘They jumped in her car in the underground parking lot, and she snuck into the court in a secret elevator and never walked the main corridor.’
An insider told DailyMail.com that the songstress is ‘terrified’ that the rapper could possibly be facing prison time.
The source expressed that the ‘important legal drama in her life’ could ‘have real heartbreaking consequences.’
‘A$AP goes to trial next month for the alleged shooting and if convicted he could be sentenced to prison.’
The insider added, ‘Rihanna and A$AP have been on a serious do-good / be-loved PR mission recently, which is completely opposite of how they like to live their lives…’
‘She is terrified of him going to prison. She has two kids at home that she does not want to raise on her own.’
