Photo: Damian Dovarganes/AP
In a happy ending for a Los Angeles trial that was shaping up to be music-video-ready, A$AP Rocky has been acquitted of two felony assault charges. The rapper and future Met Gala host has been found not guilty of firing a gun directed at a former friend, A$AP Relli (real name Terell Ephron), in 2021. Rocky (real name Rakim Mayers) had entered a “not guilty” plea, letting the trial play out in court in front of a jury and his partner and mother of his children, Rihanna. His not-guilty plea for the two counts of felony assault with a semi-automatic firearm came from his defense that it was a prop weapon and no bullets were discharged.
But that wasn’t even the most dramatic part: There were also allegations of AI-manipulated messages, a testimony from Real Housewives of Beverly Hills’s Erika Jayne’s son (he’s a cop!), speculation of a President Trump pardon, and a Johnny Depp connection. (There is also a significant Depp connection to the other big Hollywood trial right now between the It Ends With Us cast.) Rocky was facing a maximum sentence of 24 years. Here’s everything you missed in this trial.
A$AP Rocky faced two counts of assault with a semi-automatic firearm after a street fight with his former friend and crew member A$AP Relli. The altercation occurred on November 6, 2021, in the heart of Hollywood. The Los Angeles district attorney alleged that during that fight, Rocky drew a semi-automatic weapon and fired twice in Relli’s direction. Rocky maintained that he was only holding a prop gun.
Rocky’s attorney Joe Tacopina said that his client turned down a plea deal because the evidence will show that Rocky held “nothing more than a prop gun” and that “all of Rocky’s friends knew that Rocky carried a prop gun.”
“Yes, he was offered a plea deal but is not interested because he is actually innocent,” Tacopina told ABC News. “The terms were 180 days in jail, three years’ probation, and a few other minor conditions on a plea to an assault with a gun charge.”
Tacopina said Rocky was advised by his security team to carry the prop gun because he was the victim of a stalker. He said Rocky received the prop gun a few months earlier when he was with Rihanna shooting a video.
The prop-gun defense seemed strange enough until Relli testified that recordings of him played at trial were fake and generated by AI. The recordings in question allegedly insinuate that if Rocky paid Relli off, he would not testify as a witness.
“If I’m not there, he pays me out from my lawsuit, I’ll walk away, basically …I’ll go to an island relaxing, you get what I’m sayin’, they are going to be scrambling to find me because now they have to go against Rocky, the state, and if they have evidence but it’s not going to be the same when you present it to the jury and you don’t have a compliant witness,” according to the recordings played in court.
Wally Sajimi, a social-media consultant, took the stand to deny that the recordings were doctored. He testified that he personally made the recordings with Relli and insisted the recordings were not altered.
“They’re real,” Sajimi said on the stand.
New York attorney Joe Tacopina, representing Rocky, once served as part of President Donald Trump’s legal team during his criminal hush-money trial and for an appeal of the civil case brought by the writer E. Jean Carroll.
Relli retained Johnny Depp’s former trial attorneys, Camille Vasquez and Benjamin Chew, to represent him in his $30 million civil-defamation lawsuit that he filed against both Rocky and Tacopina. Vasquez and Chew won Depp’s suit over his former partner Amber Heard.
LAPD sergeant Thomas Zizzo might have been the most random celebrity cameo in the mix. He is Erika Jayne’s son; he was working as a Hollywood patrol officer and was one of the first responders on the night of the alleged assault. Zizzo testified that he had a hard time determining if a crime had even taken place when he arrived that night because there were no suspects, no victims, and no apparent damage from a shooting.
“When we get there, we work with what we got, not with what we like,” Zizzo said.
The mother of two of Rocky’s children came to court to support Rocky on three separate days during the trial, sitting next to Rocky’s mother, according to a January 31 report from the AP. She was also present in court when the verdict was announced.
Rocky had an additional incentive to avoid jail time. Not only is he headlining the 2025 Rolling Loud California festival with Playboi Carti that is set to take place March 15–16 in Hollywood, but he is also one of the co-chairs of the upcoming 2025 Met Gala along with Colman Domingo, Lewis Hamilton, Pharrell William, and the gala’s chair, LeBron James. Rocky, whose trial outfits have included Saint Laurent suits and a Gucci cashmere coat, is known for his sleek tailored style, and he will be part of the Met Gala’s event focusing on “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style.” He also is starring in Highest 2 Lowest, a film by Spike Lee starring Denzel Washington that is slated to be released in theaters this summer, in addition to the Sundance favorite If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, which will likely be released later this year.
During the prosecution’s closing statements to the jury on Thursday, they told the jury they need to decide whether Rocky held “a real gun or a fake gun.” The prosecution emphasized that even though this altercation between Rocky and Relli didn’t result in a serious injury, “this was still a serious crime.” The DA pointed out that this altercation between Rocky and Relli occurred on Saturday night in the heart of busy Hollywood and there was the potential for other people to have been hurt. When Rocky’s house was searched by the LAPD, the DA claimed that they only found real guns and real ammunition. The DA told the jury that if they decide the defendant was holding a real gun, then the law compels them to make one conclusion — the defendant is guilty. Rihanna and her two young sons with Rocky — 2-year-old RZA Athelston and 1-year-old Riot Rose — sat front row. The sounds made by the children could be heard while the DA gave his closing statements.
If he had been found guilty by the jury, it would have been up to the judge to determine whether Rocky would serve jail time. Kate Mangels, a criminal defense expert attorney and partner at Los Angeles firm Kinsella Holley Iser Kump Steinsapir, said the judge would take into account Rocky’s criminal history (Rocky was found guilty of a 2019 assault in Sweden for his part in a street fight but was given a suspended sentence after he left the country) and whether he was considered the aggressor of the incident.
“There is a wide range of possible options for sentencing, which is largely up to the discretion of the court,” Mangels said. “The jury does not participate in sentencing decisions.”
Despite the fact that Rocky turned down a plea deal before trial, Mangels said the DA could reoffer the deal, with the same or with different terms, anytime prior to the jury reaching a verdict. However, at the start of closing arguments, LADA spokesperson Pamela Johnson told Vulture “any plea deal is off the table.”
When Rocky was arrested in Sweden in 2019 and charged with assault after he and members of his entourage fought with a pair of men in the street, President Trump stepped in, sending over a special envoy for hostage affairs and insisting on his release. Rocky spent almost a month in jail before he was eventually let out. “A$AP Rocky released from prison and on his way home to the United States from Sweden. It was a Rocky Week, get home ASAP A$AP!” President Trump posted on X after his intervention. Rocky was later found guilty but given a suspended sentence.
But Trump wouldn’t have been able to use his powers if Rocky had been convicted in this case. Mangels explained that Rocky was charged in a state court, and a president does not have the power to pardon state crimes, Mangels said.
The trial, which began on January 24, was initially expected to last 15 court days,. Superior Court Judge Mark Arnold announced Thursday morning that he expected A$AP Rocky’s case to go to the jury on Friday after closing statements were completed. The jury did not come to a verdict on Friday, and because Monday is a court holiday (Presidents’ Day), they resumed their deliberations and reached a verdict on Tuesday, February 18.
After 3 hours and 53 minutes the jury reached a verdict on day 14 of Rocky’s trial, the first full day of deliberations. Rocky stood in a pinstripe suite next to his attorney Joe Tacopina when the jury read the verdict declaring that he was found not guilty. Rocky ran into the audience, hugged Rihanna as she screamed, and then ran back and hugged Tacopina. He also bent over and prayed and looked back at the sky. He hugged the remaining members of his legal team and continued to hug his attorney as the jury was excused. “Thank you all for saving my life,” Rocky said as the jury walked out.
This post has been updated.
