Los Angeles (United States) (AFP) – Opening arguments were expected to begin Friday in the trial of rapper A$AP Rocky, who is charged with pulling a gun on a former friend during an argument in Hollywood. The 36-year-old, who has two children with singer Rihanna, faces two counts of assault with a semiautomatic firearm during confrontations with Terell Ephron on November 6, 2021.
The rapper, whose real name is Rakim Mayers, was reportedly arrested in April 2022 at Los Angeles International Airport after arriving on a private plane from Barbados, where he and Rihanna had been on vacation. Ephron — also known as A$AP Relli — told an earlier court hearing he and other members of the New York-based A$AP rap collective felt success had made Mayers arrogant. Ephron said he told Mayers he had “failed everybody.”
“I just wanted him to hear my side,” he told the earlier hearing, testifying that Mayers had pulled a gun on him and said “I’ll kill you right now.” He claimed Mayers had fired his weapon, with the bullet grazing his hand. Mayers’ lawyer, Joe Tacopina — who has represented US President Donald Trump — said at a hearing Tuesday the defense plans to call witnesses who will testify the gun was a “starter pistol” Mayers carried as a prop.
Superior Court Judge Mark Arnold this week swore in a seven-woman, five-man jury who will hear the case in downtown Los Angeles. Before the trial began, Mayers rejected an offered plea deal that would have seen him serve six months in jail in exchange for admitting one of the charges against him.
A$AP Rocky shot to fame in the first half of the last decade with two mega-selling albums: “Long.Live.A$AP” and “At.Long.Last.A$AP.” In 2019, he was given a suspended prison sentence in Sweden after a fight, in an affair that caused diplomatic tensions between Stockholm and Washington, pushing then-president Trump to intervene.
© 2024 AFP
