A$AP Rocky trial begins closing arguments and Rihanna comes to court with their toddler sons – The Associated Press
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Rihanna and A$AP Rocky held hands under umbrellas Thursday as they departed a Los Angeles courthouse where closing arguments are continuing in Rocky’s assault trial. (Feb. 13)
Rihanna brought her sons RZA and Riot to a Los Angeles courthouse where jurors were hearing closing arguments in her partner A$AP Rocky’s assault trial. (Feb. 13)
A$AP Rocky listens to closing arguments during his trial Thursday, Feb. 13, 2025, in Los Angeles. (Allison Dinner/Pool Photo via AP)
Attorney Joe Tacopina speaks during closing arguments in the trial of A$AP Rocky, Thursday, Feb. 13, 2025, in Los Angeles. (Allison Dinner/Pool Photo via AP)
Singer Rihanna leaves Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center in Los Angeles on Friday, Jan. 31, 2025. (AP Photo/Liam McEwan)
Rapper A$AP Rocky arrives at the Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center in Los Angeles, Wednesday, Jan. 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)
Judge Mark S. Arnold presides over closing arguments in the trial of A$AP Rocky, Thursday, Feb. 13, 2025, in Los Angeles. (Allison Dinner/Pool Photo via AP)
Rapper A$AP Rocky arrives at the Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center in Los Angeles, Wednesday, Jan. 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)
Singer Rihanna, center, returns to Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center in Los Angeles on Friday, Jan. 31, 2025. (AP Photo/Liam McEwan)
A$AP Rocky listens to closing arguments during his trial Thursday, Feb. 13, 2025, in Los Angeles. (Allison Dinner/Pool Photo via AP)
A$AP Rocky stands in court during closing arguments in his trial Thursday, Feb. 13, 2025, in Los Angeles. (Allison Dinner/Pool Photo via AP)
LOS ANGELES (AP) — With Rihanna and two toddlers looking on from the audience, a prosecutor at the trial of A$AP Rocky told jurors during his closing argument Thursday that they have “one critical question” to answer.
“Was it a real gun or was it a fake gun?” Deputy District Attorney Paul Przelomiec said. “Nothing else is in dispute.”
Both sides gave their answers during closings at the Los Angeles trial, where the hip-hop star is accused of firing at a former friend on a Hollywood street in 2021.
Przelomiec argued that Rocky was undeniably guilty of two felony counts of assault with a semiautomatic firearm.
The defense says the gun was a prop that fires only blanks that Rocky took for security months earlier from the set of his music video for “DMB,” which featured Rihanna.
Rocky’s lawyer Joe Tacopina said the accuser and key prosecution witness is “an angry pathological liar” who “committed perjury again and again and again and again.”
Rocky, the Grammy-nominated music star, fashion mogul and actor whose legal name is Rakim Athelaston Mayers, is the longtime partner of singing superstar Rihanna, who has attended the trial sporadically. For the first time, she brought their two sons — 2-year-old RZA Athelston Mayers and 1-year-old Riot Rose Mayers — entering the courtroom quietly but dramatically a few minutes into closings.
The boys, wearing suits, could be heard cooing as the prosecutor talked. Rihanna held one on her lap and tried to keep him quiet with a toy. During a break, Rocky walked down the hall, past jurors, holding the younger boy. Rihanna returned to court without them after lunch.
The defense will complete its closing argument on Friday. After a rebuttal from prosecutors, jurors will begin deliberations.
Rocky could get up to 24 years in prison if convicted.
The jurors are not supposed to know the possible sentence. But during testimony, Rocky’s tour manager, Lou Levin, said, “I read that he was facing 24 years,” after a prosecutor hounded him about whether he wanted to see his friend and sometime boss convicted.
In his closing, Przelomiec said it was intentional.
Rocky and the man he’s accused of shooting, who goes by A$AP Relli, became friends in high school in New York. Both were members of a crew of creative types called the A$AP Mob.
Their friendship continued after Rocky gained global fame with No. 1 albums in 2012 and 2013, but by Nov. 6, 2021, their bond had become a beef.
They met up outside a Hollywood hotel and scuffled. In a second confrontation moments later, Rocky fired the shots. Relli said his knuckles were grazed by one of them.
“There’s no bullet in the world that could’ve done that,” Tacopina said, showing jurors a picture of Relli’s hand.
A$AP Twelvyy, a friend who was with Rocky, testified that Rocky fired the shots as a warning to stop Relli from attacking another member of their crew, A$AP Illz.
The moment was captured on blurry surveillance video, leaving it open to interpretation. It shows Relli holding Illz in front of him.
The prosecution argues that Rocky moves forward in an attempt to get a clear shot at Relli that wouldn’t hit Illz.
“They would have you believe that Rocky shot a real gun at his friend Illz, who was right there,” Tacopina countered. “That makes no sense.”
Twelvyy
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