With Rihanna and two toddlers in the audience, a prosecutor at A$AP Rocky’s trial told jurors during his final statement on Thursday that they have “one critical question” to answer.
“Was it a real gun or was it a fake gun?” Deputy District Attorney Paul Przelomiec said. “Nothing else is in dispute.”
Both sides responded during closing arguments in the Los Angeles trial, where the hip-hop musician is accused of shooting a former buddy on a Hollywood street in 2021.
Przelomiec contended that Rocky was clearly guilty of two felony counts of assault with a semiautomatic weapon.
According to the defense, the gun was a toy that fires only blanks that Rocky seized for security months previously from the set of his music video for “DMB,” which featured Rihanna.
Rocky’s lawyer, Joe Tacopina, described the accuser and main prosecution witness as “an angry pathological liar” who “committed perjury again and again and again.”
The defense will finish its closing argument on Friday. After prosecutors’ argument, jurors will begin deliberations.
Jurors are not supposed to know the potential sentence. But during evidence, Rocky’s tour manager, Lou Levin, stated, “I read that he was facing 24 years,” as a prosecutor pressed him on whether he wanted to see his buddy and former boss imprisoned.
Rocky and the man he is suspected of shooting, known as A$AP Relli, became pals in high school in New York. Both belonged to the A$AP Mob, a group of creative individuals.
Their friendship persisted after Rocky rose to global prominence with No. 1 albums in 2012 and 2013, but by November 6, 2021, their relationship had devolved into a feud.
They got into an altercation outside a Hollywood hotel. Rocky opened fire in a second confrontation shortly later. Relli claimed that one of them had grazed his knuckles.
Tacopina described the injuries as “knuckle scrapes.“
“There’s no bullet in the world that could’ve done that,” Tacopina said, showing jurors a picture of Relli’s hand.
A$AP Twelvyy, a friend who was with Rocky, testified that Rocky fired the rounds as a warning to prevent Relli from hitting another member of their group, A$AP Illz.
The moment was captured on grainy surveillance film, leaving it up for interpretation. The image depicts Relli holding Illz in front of him.
Rocky faces up to 24 years in prison if convicted.
Stay tuned for the verdict in A$AP Rocky’s high-profile trial. Rihanna supports A$AP Rocky; what are your thoughts on the trial? Tell us what you think!
