A$AP Rocky gestures out of the window of a automobile whereas leaving court docket after he was discovered not responsible in his trial Tuesday in Los Angeles.
Damian Dovarganes/AP
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Damian Dovarganes/AP
LOS ANGELES — A$AP Rocky dove from the protection desk into the arms of Rihanna Tuesday as a clerk learn the not responsible verdict at his trial on two felony counts of assault with a semiautomatic firearm.
The Los Angeles courtroom, stuffed with followers of the hip-hop performer and his singing famous person accomplice, exploded into screaming glee as Rocky and Rihanna embraced and sobbed.
After a three-week trial, the jury deliberated for simply three hours to achieve the decision that spared Rocky, whose authorized identify is Rakim Mayers, a jail sentence that would have run greater than 20 years.
“Thank y’all for saving my life,” he advised the jurors as they left the Los Angeles courtroom.
Amid the chaos, it took the clerk some time to learn the second not responsible verdict, although it was impossible the jury would cut up on the counts.
On the eve of the trial, Rocky turned down a prosecution provide of simply six months in jail, together with probation and different circumstances, if he would plead responsible to 1 rely.
Insisting on his innocence, Rocky determined to gamble {that a} jury would really feel the identical. It paid off. The jurors felt at the least that there was cheap doubt of his guilt.
Rihanna cried and hugged the protection legal professionals, as did Rocky. She attended the trial sporadically and introduced the couple’s two sons — 2-year-old RZA Athelston Mayers and 1-year-old Riot Rose Mayers — for a few of the closing arguments.
The decision got here on the peak of Rocky’s fame, if not the top of his music profession. The three-time Grammy nominee, trend mogul and actor has a banner 12 months within the works, and may now look to it with out the specter of jail hanging over him. He’s scheduled to headline the Rolling Loud music pageant in March; he is among the celeb co-chairs of trend’s greatest night time, the Met Gala, in Could; and he stars with Denzel Washington in director Spike Lee’s movie Highest 2 Lowest, set for launch in early summer time.
Prosecutors and their witnesses mentioned that he was beefing with a former pal, A$AP Relli, with whom he had been in a crew who referred to as themselves the A$AP Mob since highschool. They mentioned the 2 males met up in Hollywood on Nov. 6, 2021, and after a scuffle Rocky pulled the gun and fired twice at Relli, who mentioned one of many pictures grazed his knuckle however was not significantly damage.
Rocky’s lawyer Joe Tacopina mentioned in his closing argument that Relli is “an indignant pathological liar” who “dedicated perjury repeatedly and repeatedly.”
Rocky’s legal professionals and witnesses they referred to as mentioned Rocky had shot a prop gun that solely fires blanks, which he had been carrying for safety since taking it from a music video set months earlier. They mentioned he fired it as a warning as a result of Relli was attacking one other member of their crew.
The jurors had been advised that regardless of three years passing for the reason that incident, nobody talked about the phony gun to authorities till the day jury choice started on the trial.
They had been additionally instructed that in the event that they discovered that Rocky moderately believed that he or one of many two pals with him that night time had been in imminent hazard of damage, and that he used cheap pressure, they may discover the defendant not responsible.
It wasn’t instantly clear whether or not they reached the decision as a result of they believed he was in actual fact carrying a prop gun or that he acted in self-defense. They didn’t should agree on their reasoning, or clarify it exterior of the jury room. They simply needed to attain the identical conclusion.
Rocky opted to not testify in his personal protection.
In his closing argument, Deputy District Lawyer John Lewin urged the jurors to not be influenced by the celeb or household points of the case, and advised Rihanna bringing the children to closing arguments was an try to govern the jury.
“You aren’t allowed to think about how this would possibly have an effect on Rihanna and his children,” the prosecutor mentioned. “We’re all chargeable for our personal actions on the earth.”
After the decision, Tacopina mentioned exterior the courthouse that “Rocky didn’t need her right here, I’ll inform you that.”
He mentioned Rocky “wished to defend her from this. Wild horses could not preserve her away.”
“I am unable to think about this has been something however a life-altering expertise for them,” he mentioned.
