ASAP Rocky has been acquitted of two counts of assault stemming from a 2021 Hollywood taking pictures, capping a monthlong trial marked by allegations of courtroom misconduct and frequent appearances by the defendant’s celebrity paramour, Rihanna.
The decision was learn in entrance of a packed courtroom, together with Rihanna, who leaped as much as hug Rocky as his supporters let loose a loud roar when the court docket clerk learn the phrases “not guilty.”
“Thank y’all for saving my life,” Rocky instructed the jury as they exited. “You’re making the right decision.”
The rapper, whose authorized title is Rakim Mayers, was accused of taking pictures his former buddy and ASAP Mob member Terrell Ephron, a.okay.a. ASAP Relli, following a struggle close to The W Resort in Hollywood in November 2021.
The longtime pals, who helped co-found the ASAP rap collective in Harlem that launched Rocky’s profession, drifted aside as Rocky’s star rose. Tensions boiled over after Ephron got here beneath the misunderstanding that Rocky broke a promise to pay for one more ASAP member’s funeral, resulting in the struggle that led to Rocky taking pictures Ephron within the hand.
Protection lawyer Joe Tacopina, nonetheless, contended Rocky was defending himself after Ephron attacked him on the road. Simply earlier than trial, Tacopina admitted Rocky was the particular person caught on digicam taking pictures at Ephron, however insisted the weapon was a “prop gun” Rocky took off the set of a music video he filmed with Rihanna.
Rocky would have confronted as much as 20 years in jail at sentencing, as prosecutors filed a sentencing enhancement for the usage of a gun throughout the fee of a criminal offense.
Proof within the case initially appeared restricted. Los Angeles cops who responded to 911 calls on the evening of the incident discovered no proof of a taking pictures. Ephron reported the assault two days later and claimed to have recovered two shell casings on the scene. There are not any forensics tying Rocky to the taking pictures and a weapon was by no means recovered.
Rocky’s tour supervisor testified he removed the prop gun, main prosecutors to query whether or not the gadget ever existed. Footage of the incident clearly captures Rocky wielding what seems to be like a gun, however video of the particular taking pictures doesn’t clearly present Rocky firing the weapon.
The case largely got here all the way down to the credibility of two individuals: Ephron — the one eyeball witness naming Rocky because the shooter — and Jamel Phillips, aka ASAP Twelvyy, who was with Rocky the evening of the taking pictures and claimed he knew the gun was faux.
Tacopina tormented Ephron throughout two days of cross-examination, insisting he solely contacted the police to bolster a civil lawsuit he filed in opposition to Rocky, calling him an extortionist and a “perjurer.” Tacopina caught the prosecution’s key witness in a number of lies he dispelled with video and audio recordings, sparking a number of pissed off outbursts from Ephron.
“I do not wanna stay here. I am not on trial. I’m here for 5 days … dealing with this man. I wanna go,” Ephron grumbled at Tacopina at one level.
Prosecutors, in the meantime, argued that testimony from Phillips and Rocky’s tour supervisor — Louis Levin, a.okay.a. ASAP Lou — couldn’t be trusted as a result of they each depend on the rap star for his or her revenue.
“Are you going to listen to Mr. Twelvyy, the man who is dependent on the defendant for his income, really for his entire career?” Deputy Dist. Atty. Paul Przelomiec requested. “Are you going to rely on him or are you going to rely on your own lying eyes? Because what he described on the video did not happen.”
Throughout closing arguments Przelomiec painted the prop gun protection as absurd, questioning why Rocky and his crew wouldn’t protect the weapon as proof of his innocence and asking why a multimillionaire defendant would carry a faux gun as a substitute of hiring actual safety. Phillips testified at trial that Rocky began carrying the prop after he was attacked with a knife in a nightclub.
Whereas a lot pretrial consideration was paid to the potential presence of Rihanna within the courtroom — she attended a number of days of trial and introduced the couple’s youngsters to closing arguments final week — the true fireworks had been between a pair of brash attorneys identified for his or her quick fuses.
Tacopina, who as soon as defended President Trump in a civil defamation case stemming from a rape allegation in New York, and Deputy Dist. Atty. John Lewin, a last-minute addition to the trial staff who famously received a homicide conviction in opposition to Robert Durst, have spent all the trial exchanging verbal haymakers which have threatened to translate to bodily blows — and court docket sanctions.
Lewin has repeatedly accused Tacopina of moral violations and misconduct, claiming the protection staff withheld discovery and violated court docket orders. He even claimed Tacopina challenged him to a bodily struggle at one level and accused the Brooklyn lawyer of being on “steroids.” Tacopina, in the meantime, has invoked allegations of misconduct in opposition to Lewin stemming from the Durst case and cursed on the veteran prosecutor on multiple event, shouting at Lewin and calling him “fat” whereas Rocky laughed aloud throughout a break in closing arguments final Friday.
Rocky declined to testify in his personal protection and sat largely emotionless throughout the trial, brightening solely when Rihanna or his children confirmed up within the gallery. The star rapper is about to launch his first solo album in almost a decade, headline L.A.’s Rolling Loud music pageant and star in a Spike Lee movie later this 12 months.
