LOS ANGELES (AP) — Crucial testimony on the trial of rapper A$AP Rocky bought second billing because the defendant’s companion and the mom of their kids sat quietly however shined shiny like a diamond within the viewers.
Rihanna appeared at his Los Angeles trial — the place he’s charged with two felony counts of assault with a semiautomatic firearm — for a second day Thursday, sitting between his sister and mom as his former good friend started cross-examination on his allegations that Rocky fired a gun at him in 2021.
The singing celebrity was once more escorted into the courtroom surreptitiously as she was in her first look on the trial Wednesday, earlier than a lot of the viewers was admitted.
The witness, who goes by A$AP Relli and was born Terell Ephron, balked and bristled on the preliminary questions of protection lawyer Joe Tacopina, a lot in order that the choose referred to as a recess so the prosecution and his personal lawyer might clarify to Relli the best way to reply correctly.
Earlier than that might occur, Relli shouted, “You did this to yourself!” to Rocky.
“Do not talk to the defendant!”
Decide Mark Arnold shouted at him.
Tacopina was exhibiting screenshots of Relli’s Instagram posts in an try to contradict his earlier testimony that he had nothing however love for Rocky earlier than the taking pictures, and that he’d been so shunned for coming ahead that his enterprise was ruined and he had no social media presence.
“Why are you showing my Instagram? I’m already getting death threats,” Relli stated to Tacopina.
“Who is giving you death threats?” Tacopina requested.
“The whole world!” Relli responded.
“The whole world gave you death threats?” Tacopina requested.
“Yeah, trigger you’re saying I’m an extortionist and also you’re placing my complete life on the market,” Relli stated.
Whereas testifying a day earlier, he described the night time in November of 2021 when he and Rocky, their relationship straining, had a confrontation and scuffled on a Hollywood avenue, and Rocky pointed a gun at him earlier than strolling away.
He testified that he was shouting at Rocky as he walked after him, then Rocky pulled the gun once more and held it within the air.
“He turned around and then it was like BOOM!” he informed the jury. “The whole thing was like a movie, he kind of like pointed down and he shot the first shot.”
He stated he felt a burning on his hand the place a bullet grazed it.
It wasn’t clear whether or not jurors seen Rihanna was there when she made her first look on Wednesday, when she wore an extended black costume with buttons that resembled an overcoat, she watched the proceedings calmly and periodically moved outsized, tortoiseshell glasses from atop her head to her eyes. She had a easy
Rocky, whose authorized identify is Rakim Athelston Mayers, might rise up to 24 years in jail.
Relli testified that he did not see Rocky hearth a second shot as a result of he was hiding behind a mutual good friend who was there with the rapper, who ran away after that, Relli testified.
He stated, “I felt my hand hot,” and later added, “I was hit. Or I was grazed. I didn’t have a hole or nothing.”
Rocky’s lawyer says the pictures he fired weren’t even from an actual gun — they had been blanks from a starter pistol that he carried as a prop. The lawyer stated Relli knew this, and that was why he was so fearless strolling after him.
“Oh it was a real gun,” Relli testified underneath prosecution questioning, saying he knew due to his scraped hand.
About an hour after the taking pictures, Relli returned to the scene and stated he photographed and recovered two shell casings. Earlier, whereas responding to a report of a taking pictures, police didn’t discover any.
He despatched a textual content to Rocky that was proven in courtroom saying “U try killing me.”
Rocky denied it in his reply.
“Bro wtf is u talkin bout why u tell ppl I shot at u.”
He despatched Rocky pictures of the shell casings and his grazed hand.
Rocky stated he was making stuff up and talking “all type of nonsense” and was attempting to “extort” him.
Rocky and Rihanna, each 36, have two sons collectively: 2-year-old RZA Athelston Mayers and 1-year-old Riot Rose Mayers. Rihanna revealed she was pregnant with the youthful boy after headlining the Tremendous Bowl halftime present in 2023 with a visual child bump.
The singer and the rapper, who’re each style moguls, first grew to become shut when he supplied a verse to her 2012 track “Cockiness (Love It)” and so they carried out it on the MTV Video Music Awards. They grew to become a pair in 2020.
