A$AP Rocky gestures out of the window of a car whereas leaving court docket after he was discovered not responsible in his trial Tuesday in Los Angeles.
Damian Dovarganes/AP
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Damian Dovarganes/AP
LOS ANGELES — A$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 companion, exploded into screaming glee as Rocky and Rihanna embraced and sobbed.
After a three-week trial, the jury deliberated for simply three hours to succeed in the decision that spared Rocky, whose authorized identify is Rakim Mayers, a jail sentence that might have run greater than twenty years.
“Thank y’all for saving my life,” he instructed 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 not possible the jury would break up on the counts.
On the eve of the trial, Rocky turned down a prosecution supply of simply six months in jail, together with probation and different situations, if he would plead responsible to at least one 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 number 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 likely one of the movie star co-chairs of trend’s greatest evening, 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 season.
Prosecutors and their witnesses stated that he was beefing with a former good friend, A$AP Relli, with whom he had been in a crew who known as themselves the A$AP Mob since highschool. They stated 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 stated one of many pictures grazed his knuckle however was not severely harm.
Rocky’s lawyer Joe Tacopina stated in his closing argument that Relli is “an offended pathological liar” who “dedicated perjury many times and many times.”
Rocky’s legal professionals and witnesses they known as stated 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 stated he fired it as a warning as a result of Relli was attacking one other member of their crew.
The jurors have been instructed that regardless of three years passing because the incident, nobody talked about the phony gun to authorities till the day jury choice started on the trial.
They have been additionally instructed that in the event that they discovered that Rocky moderately believed that he or one of many two buddies with him that evening have been in imminent hazard of damage, and that he used cheap pressure, they might 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 only needed to attain the identical conclusion.
Rocky opted to not testify in his personal protection.
In his closing argument, Deputy District Legal professional John Lewin urged the jurors to not be influenced by the movie star or household points of the case, and steered Rihanna bringing the youngsters to closing arguments was an try to control the jury.
“You aren’t allowed to think about how this may have an effect on Rihanna and his youngsters,” the prosecutor stated. “We’re all accountable for our personal actions on this planet.”
After the decision, Tacopina stated exterior the courthouse that “Rocky didn’t need her right here, I’ll inform you that.”
He stated Rocky “wished to defend her from this. Wild horses could not maintain her away.”
“I can not think about this has been something however a life-altering expertise for them,” he stated.
