LOS ANGELES — The jury in the felony assault trial of A$AP Rocky received the case late Friday afternoon after a prosecutor urged them to disregard any personal feelings they may have for the famous hip-hop artist, his acclaimed singer wife, Rihanna, and their young children.
The Los Angeles jury, comprising seven women and five men, will start deliberating on two counts of assault with a semiautomatic firearm after a three-day weekend, with discussions set to resume on Tuesday. If they find Rocky guilty on both counts, he faces the possibility of a hefty sentence, amounting to up to 24 years in prison.
Rihanna was present in the courtroom after closing arguments began on Thursday, a routine she followed throughout the three-week trial. On this occasion, she also brought along their two young sons, aged 2 and 1, which Deputy District Attorney John Lewin suggested might be a tactic to sway jurors. He pointed out, “They brought in two adorable children yesterday for closing argument. They haven’t been here any other time. And you have to ask yourselves, why children that age would be here in a situation like this?”
Lewin emphasized that the jury should not be influenced by how the outcome might affect Rihanna and the children, stating, “We are all responsible for our own actions in the world.” On Friday, Rihanna was seen sitting with Rocky’s mother and sister, without the children, and she left the courtroom with Rocky, both under tight security measures.
The allegations against Rocky involve firing two shots at a former friend on a Hollywood street corner back in 2021. His defense team contends that he only discharged blanks from a prop gun intended for use during a music video shoot. Defense attorney Joe Tacopina asserted that the accuser, who goes by A$AP Relli, was the real aggressor, painting him as an unreliable witness.
Tacopina presented the jury with texts that Relli sent shortly before the incident, in which he urged Rocky to engage in a fight, emphasizing that those messages were deleted afterward. “Their witness lied to them, lied to police, and deleted the messages,” Tacopina stated. He highlighted Relli’s combative demeanor during his testimony and suggested that Relli started the physical altercation, showcasing a surveillance recording that partially captured the confrontation.
“If you had to make a decision, the most important in your life or that of your family’s, on his word, would you do it? You all know what the answer to that question is,” Tacopina challenged the jurors. He indicated that those present must weigh the seriousness of the case carefully.
Relli claimed his knuckles were grazed by gunfire but stated he was otherwise unharmed. Should the jury reject the idea that Rocky used a prop gun, they still could acquit him by determining that he acted out of self-defense. No firearm was produced as definitive evidence by either side.
In his rebuttal, Lewin stated, “If it is a prop gun, there is no self-defense.” He urged the jurors that their verdict could be rendered in a matter of minutes by simply deciding if the gun was real, asserting, “Once you decide it’s not a prop gun — and it’s not a prop gun, the case is over.” Lewin also pointed to Rocky’s prominence in the industry, remarking, “He is a big, important man, and everybody serves him,” which included testimonies from two close associates who had claimed he had carried the prop gun around for months.
At one point during the proceedings, Judge Mark Arnold intervened to instruct Lewin to refrain from referencing Rocky’s family in his arguments, suggesting that while his earlier comments weren’t improper, he should avoid bringing up Rihanna and the children again in future statements.
