ASAP Rocky Acquitted of Shooting Former Friend

ASAP Rocky, the Grammy nominated hip-hop artist and fashionista, was found not guilty on Tuesday of shooting a former collaborator. The jury deliberated for nearly three hours in a case that threatened to derail his career.

Rocky, 36, whose real name is Rakim Mayers, faced two felony counts of assault with a deadly weapon, stemming from an altercation with his one-time friend, Terell Ephron, known as ASAP Relli, near a Hollywood hotel in 2021.

“Thank y’all for saving my life,” he told jurors after the verdict was read.

The trial hinged on jurors’ assessment of the gun used in the incident, which prosecutors said was a semiautomatic firearm and witnesses for the defense testified was instead a prop gun acquired at the filming of a music video. No gun was presented as evidence in the trial and Rocky did not take the stand in his defense.

Rocky has several notable projects on the horizon that were jeopardized by the case’s outcome. He is scheduled to be one of the headliners of the Los Angeles stop of the Rolling Loud festival in March, and was announced as one of the celebrity chairs for the Met Gala, to be held in May. He was also cast to star alongside Denzel Washington in a Spike Lee-directed movie slated to open in summer.

Before trial, Rocky turned down a plea offer of a six-month jail term with a 7-year suspended sentence and three years of probation. He faced up to 24 years in prison if convicted of both counts.

John Lewin, a deputy district attorney for Los Angeles County, had asked the jury not to be swayed by court appearances of Rihanna, the singer, actress and businesswoman who is Rocky’s longtime partner. She was a frequent presence during the 13-day trial and attended the start of closing arguments last week with the pair’s two young sons.

“They brought in two adorable children yesterday for closing argument,” Lewin said Friday. “They haven’t been here any other time. And you have to ask yourselves, why children that age would be here in a situation like this?”

The three-week trial was the culmination of a dispute between former collaborators, Relli and Rocky. The high school friends once belonged to the same rap collective called ASAP (Always Strive and Prosper) Mob but their relationship had grown acrimonious. They agreed to meet on the evening of Nov. 6, 2021, to clear their differences, Relli testified.

Relli claimed Rocky arrived with two men — ASAP Twelvyy, born Jamel Phillips, and ASAP Illz, born Illijah Ulanger — at a parking garage near the W Hotel in Hollywood.

Relli described briefly arguing with Rocky before the parties separated. The confrontation resumed a few minutes later and Rocky pulled a gun from his waistband as Relli attempted to hide behind Illz. Relli testified that Rocky fired at him, grazing his right hand. The prosecution presented surveillance video showing Rocky holding a gun before the shooting in support of its claim.

“The whole thing was like a movie, he kind of like pointed down and he shot the first shot,” Relli testified.

But the defense maintained that Rocky had only intended to defend Illz from being physically attacked by Relli and that Relli had exaggerated events to extort Rocky and later support his quest for damages in a civil trial.

Joe Tacopina, a lawyer for Rocky, said videos capturing the altercation showed Relli as the aggressor. Tacopina called Relli “a perjury machine” during his closing on Friday after labeling Relli’s injuries as “knuckle scrapes.”

Relli had spent several days testifying at the trial, including sitting for a contentious cross-examination by Tacopina. Relli grew frustrated when Tacopina showed his Instagram page in court and said he’d received death threats because of the case.

At one point, Judge Mark S. Arnold asked an animated Relli to “take it easy” and advised him to drink water.

“I’m not on trial,” Relli said. “I’ve been here for five days, dealing with this man. I’ve been looking stupid for five days.”

Thomas Zizzo, an LAPD sergeant (and the son of a “Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” cast member) and one of the first authorities to arrive on the scene after the incident, testified that it was difficult to determine whether a crime had taken place.

Though police could not locate evidence of a discharged weapon at the scene, Relli testified that he returned to the area later that night and retrieved two 9-millimeter shell casings.

Twelvyy and another defense witness testified that Rocky had fired blanks from a prop gun, which he had started carrying months earlier on the recommendation of a security advisor and Relli knew it was fake. Prosecutors described that assertion as absurd and challenged the testimony of defense witnesses. “They were just liars, start to finish,” Lewin said.

In his closing, Paul Przelomiec, a deputy district attorney, told the jury that the only question they should consider was whether the gun was real or not. “The answer to that question that I’ve now posed several times is obvious,” he said.

Relli also filed a lawsuit in civil court against Rocky for damages sustained during the shooting and a defamation suit against Rocky and Tacopina.