A$AP Rocky was found not guilty of shooting former friend Terell “A$AP Relli” Ephron in 2021 in a Los Angeles court today, February 18. After rejecting a plea deal that would have given the rapper six months in prison and a seven-year suspended sentence, Rocky and his team successfully argued that police lacked evidence after failing to find a gun or shell casings on the scene. (They claim a prop gun was used.) Rocky, who in 2022 pleaded not guilty to the two felony counts of assault with a semiautomatic firearm, did not take the stand in the hearing. Rihanna did make headlines, however, occasionally appearing in court to support her husband with their two sons. “Thank y’all for saving my life. Thank y’all for making the right decision,” Rocky told the jurors as they left the courtroom.
Ephron alleged that Rocky, during a disagreement on November 6, 2021, pulled a gun on him outside a hotel, yelling “I’ll kill you right now.” He says that, though Rocky initially walked away from the dispute, Ephron followed him and continued the argument, at which point Rocky allegedly fired multiple shots, including one that grazed Ephron’s knuckles. The defence said Rocky was given a prop gun for a music video and carried it to deter attackers; Ephron was emboldened to follow him, the defence said, because he knew the gun was fake.
Two key defence witnesses, A$AP Twelvyy and A$AP Lou, testified that Rocky carried a prop gun. The lead prosecutor and deputy district attorney for Los Angeles, Paul Przelomiec, said the witnesses were coached. He asked the jury why Rocky would fire a prop gun as a threat if Ephron knew the gun was fake. “The deterrent effect goes completely out the window,” he said. Przelomiec pointed to a piece of evidence originally produced by the defence: a recording of a phone call between Ephron and a friend, taped without Ephron’s knowledge, in which he gave his side of events, referring to a real gun and a timeline that aligned with his testimony.
No clear video of the incident itself was captured, but some audio was caught on surveillance tapes and police claimed to have identified footage of Rocky carrying a gun near the scene. Police searched a sidewalk and street roughly 20 minutes after the apparent sound of gunshots, but found no shell casings, no evidence of the shooting, and ultimately, no gun. Rocky’s lawyer, Joe Tacopina, said outside the courtroom early in the case, “I think the police were very competent in this investigation. They did a thorough search and I think that if there were things there for them to find, then they would have found them. There’s a reason that 10 police officers searched and didn’t find shell casings there. There’s a reason. Not because they were blind or they were drunk or because they didn’t want to find it. It’s because they did a thorough job.”
A$AP Relli previously sued A$AP Rocky, both for the alleged shooting and for defaming him in the press.
