Rapper A$AP Rocky was discovered not responsible Tuesday of firing a handgun at a former buddy on a Hollywood road in 2021.
“Thank y’all for saving my life,” he advised jurors as they left the Los Angeles courtroom. They cleared him of two felony counts of assault with a semiautomatic firearm.
After the decision was learn, the 36-year-old hip-hop star, trend mogul and burgeoning actor — whose authorized title is Rakim Mayers — dove into the courtroom gallery to hug his longtime accomplice, Rihanna.
He risked a sentence of 24 years in jail if he had been convicted.
On the eve of trial, he turned down a prosecution provide of simply six months in jail, together with probation and different circumstances, if he would plead responsible to 1 rely.
Insisting on his innocence, Rocky determined to gamble {that a} jury would really feel the identical. It paid off. The jurors felt at the least that there was cheap doubt of his guilt.
A$AP Rocky, centre, waits for his verdict to be learn throughout his trial on Tuesday, February 18, 2025, in Los Angeles. (Daniel Cole/Pool Picture by way of AP)
When the decision was learn, Rihanna cried and hugged the protection legal professionals. She attended the trial sporadically and introduced the couple’s two sons — two-year-old RZA Athelston Mayers and 1-year-old Riot Rose Mayers — for a number of the closing arguments.
The decision got here on the peak of Rocky’s fame, if not the head of his music profession. The three-time Grammy nominee has a banner yr within the works, and may now look to it with out the specter of jail hanging over him. He’s scheduled to headline the Rolling Loud music pageant in March; he is among the superstar co-chairs of trend’s greatest night time, the Met Gala, in Could; and he stars with Denzel Washington in director Spike Lee’s movie “Highest 2 Lowest,” set for launch in early summer time.
Prosecutors and their witnesses mentioned that he was beefing with a former buddy, A$AP Relli, with whom he had been in a crew who known as themselves the A$AP Mob since highschool. They mentioned the 2 males met up in Hollywood on Nov. 6, 2021, and after a scuffle Rocky pulled the gun and fired twice at Relli, who mentioned one of many pictures grazed his knuckle however was not critically harm.
Rocky’s lawyer Joe Tacopina mentioned in his closing argument that Relli is “an offended pathological liar” who “dedicated perjury time and again and time and again.”
Rocky’s legal professionals and witnesses they known as mentioned Rocky had shot a prop gun that solely fires blanks, which he had been carrying for safety since taking it from a music video set months earlier. They mentioned he fired it as a warning as a result of Relli was attacking one other member of their crew.
Rihanna arrives at court docket for the trial of A$AP Rocky on Tuesday, February 18, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Picture/Damian Dovarganes)
The jurors had been advised that regardless of three years passing for the reason that incident, nobody talked about the phony gun to authorities till the day jury choice started on the trial.
They had been additionally instructed that in the event that they discovered that Rocky fairly believed that he or one of many two pals with him that night time had been in imminent hazard of damage, and that he used cheap power, they might discover the defendant not responsible.
It wasn’t instantly clear whether or not they reached the decision as a result of they believed he was in reality carrying a prop gun or that he acted in self-defense. They didn’t need to agree on their reasoning, or clarify it exterior of the jury room. They simply needed to attain the identical conclusion.
Rocky opted to not testify in his personal protection.
In his closing argument, Deputy District Lawyer John Lewin urged the jurors to not be influenced by the superstar or household elements of the case, and instructed Rihanna bringing the youngsters to closing arguments was an try to govern the jury.
“You aren’t allowed to contemplate how this may have an effect on Rihanna and his children,” the prosecutor mentioned. “We’re all answerable for our personal actions on the earth.”
By ANDREW DALTON
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