The most important testimony at the trial of the rapper A$AP Rocky got second billing for a second day as superstar Rihanna sat quietly in the audience.
Rihanna, A$AP Rocky’s partner, appeared at his Los Angeles trial again on Thursday, sitting between his sister and mother.
Rocky, whose legal name is Rakim Athelston Mayers, is facing trial on two felony counts of assault with a semiautomatic firearm, accused by a former friend, A$AP Relli, of firing a gun at him in 2021.
A$AP Relli, who was born Terell Ephron, faced a fierce cross-examination on Thursday, bristling under questioning from Rocky’s lawyer and at one point shouting at the defendant. The judge briefly called a recess so the prosecution and Relli’s lawyer could instruct him how to respond properly in court.
Before that could happen, Relli shouted, “You did this to yourself!” to Rocky, prompting an admonishment from the judge.
“Do not talk to the defendant!” the judge, Mark Arnold, shouted at him.
Relli grew frustrated by the questions asked by Rocky’s attorney. The defense showed screenshots of Relli’s Instagram posts in an attempt to contradict his earlier testimony that he had a positive relationship with Rocky before the shooting, but that he’d been so shunned for coming forward that his business was ruined and that he had no social media presence.
Relli is suing Rocky’s defense attorney Joe Tacopina for libel in civil court for his public statements, and suing Rocky over the incident. The defense has sought to highlight the lawsuits in order to cast him as someone seeking money from a false story.
In testimony in previous days, Relli has described the night in November 2021 when he and Rocky, their relationship straining, had a confrontation and scuffled on a Hollywood street, and Rocky pointed a gun at him before walking away.
Relli testified that he was shouting at Rocky as he walked after him, then Rocky pulled the gun again and held it in the air.
“He turned around and then it was like BOOM!” Relli told the jury. “The whole thing was like a movie, he kind of like pointed down and he shot the first shot.”
He said he felt a burning on his hand where a bullet grazed it.
Relli testified Rocky fired another shot that he didn’t see because he had hidden behind a mutual friend.
He said, “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 shots he fired were not even from a real gun – they were blanks from a starter pistol that he carried as a prop. The lawyer said Relli knew this, and that was why he was so fearless walking after him.
“Oh it was a real gun,” Relli testified under prosecution questioning, saying he knew because of his scraped hand.
Since the shooting and his decision to go to police and testify, he said he had received death threats, been shunned as a snitch and saw the modest music management career he built fall apart.
“It’s been a living hell,” Relli said.
About an hour after the shooting, Relli returned to the scene and said he photographed and recovered two shell casings. Earlier, while responding to a report of a shooting, police did not find any.
He sent a text to Rocky that was shown in court 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 sent Rocky photos of the shell casings and his grazed hand.
Rocky said he was making stuff up and speaking “all type of nonsense” and was trying to “extort” him.
The judge in the case ruled on Thursday morning that Relli’s social media posts capturing what seems like a luxury lifestyle after the incident would be fair game for questioning.
Source: theguardian.com
