By AFP
25 January 2025 |
9:16 am
A$AP Rocky was carrying a innocent prop gun from a music video on the evening he allegedly shot a former buddy in Hollywood, his lawyer instructed courtroom Friday, as his trial on assault fees obtained underneath manner. The 36-year-old, who has two youngsters with singer Rihanna, faces two counts of assault with a semiautomatic firearm…
A$AP Rocky was carrying a innocent prop gun from a music video on the evening he allegedly shot a former buddy in Hollywood, his lawyer instructed courtroom Friday, as his trial on assault fees obtained underneath manner.
The 36-year-old, who has two youngsters with singer Rihanna, faces two counts of assault with a semiautomatic firearm throughout confrontations with Terell Ephron on November 6, 2021.
The rapper, whose actual title is Rakim Mayers, was arrested in April 2022 at Los Angeles Worldwide Airport after arriving on a personal airplane from Barbados, the place he and Rihanna had been on trip.
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Prosecutors say Mayers pulled a gun on Ephron — also called A$AP Relli — after a heated argument within the coronary heart of Hollywood, firing on one event and inflicting a minor graze.
The 2 had beforehand been buddies, and had each been a part of ASAP, a rap collective from New York, however had fallen out as a result of different members of the group felt Mayers’ business success had made him smug.
Ephron’s resentment “is the catalyst for this incident,” Mayers’ lawyer Joe Tacopina stated.
“It was Relli who was searching for a struggle,” he stated including that CCTV footage from the scene confirmed it was Relli that made the primary bodily contact.
Tacopina stated the gun that Ephron alleges was pulled on him was a prop that was not able to firing reside bullets.“The video that you just noticed reveals Rocky holding an object that seems to be the gun, and Relli seized on that and manufactured his extortion.
“The proof will clarify that the item (was) completely nothing greater than a prop gun… a starter gun, a clean gun, a faux gun. It’s utilized in pop films and music movies.”
Describing Ephron as “a felony and a perjurer,” Tacopina stated seven law enforcement officials searched the scene of the capturing hours later however discovered neither shell casings nor a weapon.
But, after officers left, Ephron returned to the scene and found a pair of 9mm shell casings he stated he had picked up from the road the place he was shot at, Tacopina stated.
With this planted “proof” Relli got down to extort cash from his now-successful former buddy.
“The proof will present you nothing greater than a cash seize, nothing extra, a transparent meant extortion by Relli (to fund an) extravagant life-style.”
The trial continues on Tuesday.
Earlier than the trial started Mayers rejected an supplied plea deal that might have seen him serve six months in jail in trade for admitting one of many fees in opposition to him.
A$AP Rocky shot to fame within the first half of the final decade with two mega-selling albums: “Lengthy. Dwell. A$AP” and “At. Lengthy. Final. A$AP.”
In 2019, he was given a suspended jail sentence in Sweden after a struggle, in an affair that induced diplomatic tensions between Stockholm and Washington, pushing then-president Trump to intervene.hg/bs
