A$AP Rocky Closing Arguments Begin, Rihanna Appears in Court with Toddler Sons – Rolling Stone
Source: Rolling Stone
A$AP Rocky’s firearm assault trial entered closing arguments today, with prosecutors casting the Grammy-nominated rapper as the antagonist of a street scuffle that allegedly ended in real gunfire on a Hollywood street corner three years ago. The rapper’s defense, meanwhile, said prosecutors utterly failed to prove their case, painting alleged victim A$AP Relli as an “angry pathological liar” who “manufactured evidence” to demand money.
Addressing jurors first, Deputy District Attorney Paul Przelomiec sought to upend Rocky’s claim he was only carrying a prop gun when he met Relli, born Terell Ephron, near a parking garage outside the W Hollywood hotel on Nov. 6, 2021, amid a breakdown in their 15-year friendship. But just minutes into his summation, all eyes turned to the gallery door as Rocky’s partner Rihanna walked into the courtroom with the couple’s two toddler sons, RZA and Riot. The superstar singer took a seat in the front row with her youngest child on her lap. Rocky, born Rakim Mayers, sat feet away at the defense table, quietly listening as Przelomiec continued his presentation.
“This is not a difficult case…. There’s only one important question in this case, one critical question that you have to answer,” Przelomiec said. “That is: Did Mr. Mayers, the man at the table, did he use a real gun or did he use a fake gun?”
In comments ranging from sarcastic to indignant, Przelomiec scoffed at Mayers’ claim he was carrying a prop gun, calling it “absurd” and “insulting to your intelligence.” He argued the gun was real and claimed surveillance clips from two locations prove it. He argued that when the gun was first brandished at a parking garage across from the hotel, Mayers’ friend A$AP Illz appeared to quickly back away. He said when the gun appeared a second time a block away, Relli, born Terell Ephron, dove behind Illz, born Illijah Ulanger, to use him as a “human shield.”
“Nobody on that video is acting like that’s a fake gun. They’re all reacting to a real gun,” he said. “If he’s holding a prop gun, and Mr. Ephron knows it’s a prop gun, why does he have to run toward Mr. Ephron? Why does he have to move at all? Why does he have to lunge [and] try to duck and dodge, side to side, to try to get a line of sight around Illz?”
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When it was his turn, lead defense attorney Joseph Tacopina said “common sense” proved the firearm was known to be a prop gun. Why else would Ephron keep pursuing Mayers from the garage to the second location, loudly berating him and “almost begging him to shoot,” he asked rhetorically. He also asked why Mayers would fire real bullets with Ephron grabbing Ulanger. “According to them, he shot a gun, a real gun, at his friend Illz. That makes no sense,” Tacopina said. “There’s no way.”
The high-powered defense attorney argued Ephron repeatedly perjured himself on the stand. “It was like a perjury miniseries,” he mocked, focusing much of his attention on what was one of the most dramatic twists of the trial. With the help of video, he brought jurors back to his cross-examination of Ephron where he asked if Ephron had ever fired a 9 mm semiautomatic before the incident. After Ephron said no, Tacopina asked if maybe he did it at a shooting range. “You heard me, definitely no,” Ephron answered. Tacopina reminded jurors that he then confronted Ephron with video showing Ephron at a shooting range on Oct. 19, 2021, two weeks before the incident. Ephron responded by testifying that the video was likely from a gun range in New Jersey, definitely not Los Angeles. Three days later, Ephron returned to the witness stand and said he did some “homework” over the weekend and determined the range was actually the Los Angeles Gun Club. Tacopina argued today that Ephron was forced into the about-face because a Twitter user posted an interior photo of the Los Angeles Gun Club that appeared “identical” to the Ephron video.
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“Remember how that all played out here when considering his credibility,” Tacopina said. “There’d be no reason to lie about that unless he had to cover up something.”
Tacopina argued Ephron had access to spent 9 mm shell casings in Los Angeles two weeks before the incident and tried to pass two of them
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