ASAP Rocky has been acquitted of two counts of assault stemming from a 2021 Hollywood shooting, capping a monthlong trial marked by allegations of courtroom misconduct and frequent appearances by the defendant’s superstar paramour, Rihanna.
The verdict was read in front of a packed courtroom, including Rihanna, who leaped up to hug Rocky as his supporters let out a loud roar when the court clerk read the words “not guilty.”
“Thank y’all for saving my life,” Rocky told the jury as they exited. “You’re making the right decision.”
The rapper, whose legal name is Rakim Mayers, was accused of shooting his former friend and ASAP Mob member Terrell Ephron, a.k.a. ASAP Relli, following a fight near The W Hotel in Hollywood in November 2021.
The longtime friends, who helped co-found the ASAP rap collective in Harlem that launched Rocky’s career, drifted apart as Rocky’s star rose. Tensions boiled over after Ephron came under the false impression that Rocky broke a promise to pay for another ASAP member’s funeral, leading to the fight that ended in Rocky shooting Ephron in the hand.
Defense attorney Joe Tacopina, however, contended Rocky was defending himself after Ephron attacked him on the street. Just before trial, Tacopina admitted Rocky was the person caught on camera shooting at Ephron, but insisted the weapon was a “prop gun” Rocky took off the set of a music video he filmed with Rihanna.
Rocky would have faced up to 20 years in prison at sentencing, as prosecutors filed a sentencing enhancement for the use of a gun during the commission of a crime.
Evidence in the case initially appeared limited. Los Angeles police officers who responded to 911 calls on the night of the incident found no evidence of a shooting. Ephron reported the attack two days later and claimed to have recovered two shell casings at the scene. There are no forensics tying Rocky to the shooting and a weapon was never recovered.
Rocky’s tour manager testified he got rid of the prop gun, leading prosecutors to question whether the device ever existed. Footage of the incident clearly captures Rocky wielding what looks like a gun, but video of the actual shooting does not clearly show Rocky firing the weapon.
The case largely came down to the credibility of two people: Ephron — the only eyeball witness naming Rocky as the shooter — and Jamel Phillips, aka ASAP Twelvyy, who was with Rocky the night of the shooting and claimed he knew the gun was fake.
Tacopina tormented Ephron during two days of cross-examination, insisting he only contacted the police to bolster a civil lawsuit he filed against Rocky, calling him an extortionist and a “perjurer.” Tacopina caught the prosecution’s key witness in several lies he dispelled with video and audio recordings, sparking several frustrated 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 point.
Prosecutors, meanwhile, argued that testimony from Phillips and Rocky’s tour manager — Louis Levin, a.k.a. ASAP Lou — couldn’t be trusted because they both rely on the rap star for their income.
“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 asked. “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.”
During closing arguments Przelomiec painted the prop gun defense as absurd, questioning why Rocky and his crew wouldn’t preserve the weapon as proof of his innocence and asking why a multimillionaire defendant would carry a fake gun instead of hiring real security. Phillips testified at trial that Rocky started carrying the prop after he was attacked with a knife in a nightclub.
While much pretrial attention was paid to the potential presence of Rihanna in the courtroom — she attended several days of trial and brought the couple’s children to closing arguments last week — the true fireworks were between a pair of brash lawyers known for their short fuses.
Tacopina, who once 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 team who famously won a murder conviction against Robert Durst, have spent the entire trial exchanging verbal haymakers that have threatened to translate to physical blows — and court sanctions.
Lewin has repeatedly accused Tacopina of ethical violations and misconduct, claiming the defense team withheld discovery and violated court orders. He even claimed Tacopina challenged him to a physical fight at one point and accused the Brooklyn attorney of being on “steroids.” Tacopina, meanwhile, has invoked allegations of misconduct against Lewin stemming from the Durst case and cursed at the veteran prosecutor on more than one occasion, shouting at Lewin and calling him “fat” while Rocky laughed aloud during a break in closing arguments last Friday.
Rocky declined to testify in his own defense and sat largely impassive during the trial, brightening only when Rihanna or his kids showed up in the gallery. The star rapper is set to release his first solo album in nearly a decade, headline L.A.’s Rolling Loud music festival and star in a Spike Lee film later this year.
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