Rapper A$AP Rocky’s accuser returns to the stand for cross-examination
A man who alleges A$AP Rocky fired a handgun at him in 2021 returns to the courthouse Friday for more cross-examination after a difficult day on the stand.
The defense is expected to continue challenging the man, known as A$AP Relli, on the actual moment of the alleged shooting on a Hollywood street in 2021.
At the end of his testimony Thursday, he said that his story may have changed over the past three years, but his fading memory doesn’t change what fundamentally happened.
“A gun was pulled on me. It was pointed at me, and it was fired later,” the man, who goes by A$AP Relli, said at the Los Angeles trial of Rocky, his former friend. “It’s been three years. If he was innocent he would be home a long time ago.”
Rihanna, the superstar singer, and Rocky’s partner, watched from the audience for the second straight day.
After the jury left for the day, Superior Court Mark Arnold said that he hadn’t heard the latter part of the statement, and would tell them to disregard it when they returned for the rest of the cross-examination Friday.
Relli, whose legal name is Terell Ephron, testified that Rocky pointed a gun at his stomach and head, but it wasn’t actually touching him, and that Rocky said he was going to kill him.
Rocky’s lawyer Joe Tacopina confronted him with a prosecutor’s interview in 2022 when he said the gun was pressed into his stomach, and he hadn’t remembered what Rocky said.
Relli broke courtroom decorum to shout at Rocky, “You did this to yourself” earlier in the day. The judge admonished him. Relli responded, “He was staring at me!”
Rocky, whose legal name is Rakim Athelaston Mayers, sat at the defense table in a black suit and did not audibly respond. He is charged with two felony counts of assault with a semiautomatic handgun for allegedly firing at Relli, his friend since high school. The charges, with a conviction, could lead to up to 25 years in prison.
Rihanna, who has two toddler sons with Rocky, caused a stir with her first appearance at his trial on Wednesday. She returned to the same spot in Rocky’s section on Thursday, sitting between his mother and sister. Surreptitiously, she entered the courtroom before most of the audience.
She wore a white top and gold earrings and calmly followed the proceedings.
Tacopina’s questioning broached the initial confrontation between Rocky and Relli, but when the trial ended for the day, had still not reached the actual moment when the shots were allegedly fired.
He spent much of it examining Relli’s attitude toward Rocky leading up to the shooting.
Relli was frequently frustrated and evasive, demanding to know why he was being asked certain questions and answers, “I don’t recall” before others were even finished.
He denied that he had been upset with Rocky before the alleged shooting, as the defense confronted him with text messages and previous testimony that suggested otherwise.
“You trying to make me look like I got some kind of animosity toward this dude, I don’t,” he said. “I never did. To this day, I don’t.”
Rocky and Rihanna, both 36, have two sons together: 2-year-old RZA Athelston Mayers and 1-year-old Riot Rose Mayers.
The singer and the rapper, who are both fashion moguls, first became close when he provided a verse when they collaborated on one of her songs in 2012, and became a couple in 2020.
He is charged with two felony counts of assault with a semiautomatic handgun for allegedly firing at Relli, his friend since high school.
Raised in Harlem, Rocky’s rap songs became a phenomenon in New York in 2011. He had his mainstream breakthrough when his first studio album went to No. 1 on the Billboard 200 in 2013.
He’s set to have his biggest career year as a multimedia star. This Sunday, he’s nominated for a Grammy Award at the ceremony at Crypto.com Arena just two miles from his trial.
He’s also set to act opposite Denzel Washington in a film directed by Spike Lee and to co-chair the Met Gala in May.
