After a jury found rapper A$AP Rocky not guilty at his trial on two felony counts of assault with a semi-automatic firearm, he celebrated by diving into the arms of Rihanna in the packed courtroom.
The Los Angeles courtroom, full of fans and family, exploded into celebration as Rocky leapt from the defence table, over a barrier and into the gallery, where Rihanna sat between his mother, Renee Black, and sister, Erika B. Mayers. They embraced and sobbed.
Amid the chaos, it took the clerk a few minutes to read the second not guilty verdict once Rocky returned to the defence table after hugging his longtime girlfriend.
“I didn’t know how athletic he was,” Rocky’s lawyer Joe Tacopina told reporters outside the courthouse. “That was raw emotion, you guys got to see that. Even for us it was insane.”
After a tense three-week trial, the jury deliberated for just three hours to reach the verdict that spared Rocky, whose legal name is Rakim Mayers, a prison sentence of up to 24 years in prison.
“Thank y’all for saving my life,” Rocky told the jurors as they left the courtroom.
“Mr. Mayers, you’re excused,” Judge Mark Arnold said.
On the eve of trial, Rocky turned down a prosecution offer of just six months in jail, along with probation and other conditions, if he pleaded guilty to one count.
Prosecutors and their witnesses said Rocky was feuding with a former friend, A$AP Relli. The pair had been in a crew who called themselves the A$AP Mob since high school. They said the two men met up in Hollywood on Nov. 6, 2021, and after a scuffle, Rocky pulled the gun and fired twice at Relli, who said one of the shots grazed his knuckle. He was not seriously hurt.
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Tacopina said in his closing argument that Relli is “an angry pathological liar” who “committed perjury again and again and again and again.”
Rocky’s lawyers and the witnesses they called said Rocky had shot a prop gun that only fires blanks, which he had been carrying for security since taking it from a music video set months earlier. They said he fired it as a warning because Relli was attacking another member of their crew.
Rocky insisted on his innocence and decided to gamble that a jury would feel the same way following the three-week trial.
In his closing argument, Deputy District Attorney John Lewin urged the jurors not to be influenced by the celebrity or family aspects of the case, and suggested Rihanna bringing the kids — two-year-old RZA Athelston Mayers and one-year-old Riot Rose Mayers — to closing arguments was an attempt to manipulate the jury.
“You are not allowed to consider how this might affect Rihanna and his kids,” the prosecutor said. “We are all responsible for our own actions in the world.”
The 36-year-old rapper hugged his defence lawyers, as did Rihanna, who was in attendance for most of the trial.
District Attorney Nathan Hochman said he respected the jury’s decision.
“Our office remains committed to seeking accountability for those who break the law, no matter their status or influence,” Hochman said in a statement. “Fame does not place anyone above the law, and we will not waver in our pursuit of justice for victims and the community.”
Rocky was more than 30 minutes late for the reading of the verdict and looked shaken and tense as he waited for the clerk to read it.
“There was a moment when before we heard the words from the clerk, he didn’t know if he was going to be spending the next two decades in jail or going home,” Tacopina said.
Following the verdict, Rocky spoke to reporters outside the courthouse.
“First of all, I got to thank God. We want to thank God first, you know what I’m saying?” Rocky told the press. “And I really want to thank the jury for making the right decision. I’m just so thankful. This is crazy right now.
“This whole experience has been crazy for the past four years,” he continued. “But I’m thankful, nonetheless. I’m thankful and blessed to be here right now to be a free man talking to y’all. Thank you. All praise to God.”
Rihanna also shared a statement on her Instagram Stories, writing, “The glory belongs to God and God alone! Thankful, humbled by his mercy!”
Rocky also took to X after the verdict and posted, “DON’T BE DUMB,” in reference to his upcoming fourth studio album.
Despite the legal battle, Rocky has an exciting year ahead.
He is set to bask in the height of hip-hop as the headliner of the Rolling Loud music festival next month. He’ll also be at the height of fashion’s biggest night, the Met Gala, as a celebrity co-chair along with LeBron James and Pharrell Williams in May. And in the summer, he adds major motion picture actor to his resume as the co-star — with Denzel Washington — in director Spike Lee’s film Highest 2 Lowest.
—With files from The Associated Press
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