LOS ANGELES (AP) — A$AP Rocky dove into the arms of Rihanna Tuesday as a clerk learn the not responsible verdict at his trial on two felony counts of assault with a semiautomatic firearm.
The Los Angeles courtroom, stuffed with followers of the hip-hop performer and his singing celebrity accomplice, exploded into screaming glee as Rocky leapt from the protection desk into the gallery, the place Rihanna sat between his mom and sister. They embraced and sobbed.
After a three-week trial, the jury deliberated for simply three hours to succeed in the decision that spared Rocky, whose authorized identify is Rakim Mayers, a jail sentence that might have run greater than 20 years.
“Thank y’all for saving my life,” he instructed the jurors as they left.
Amid the chaos, it took the clerk some time to learn the second not responsible verdict, although it was not possible the jury would cut up on the counts.
“Mr. Mayers, you’re excused,” Decide Mark Arnold stated.
On the eve of trial, Rocky turned down a prosecution provide of simply six months in jail, together with probation and different circumstances, if he would plead responsible to 1 rely.
Insisting on his innocence, Rocky determined to gamble {that a} jury would really feel the identical. It paid off. The jurors felt no less than that there was cheap doubt of his guilt.
Rihanna hugged the protection legal professionals, as did Rocky. She attended the trial sporadically and introduced the couple’s two sons — 2-year-old RZA Athelston Mayers and 1-year-old Riot Rose Mayers — for among the closing arguments.
The couple needed to combat via a crush of photographers, reporters, YouTubers and followers to get right into a ready SUV outdoors the courthouse after the decision.
“This whole experience has been crazy for the past 4 years,’ Rocky said amid the mob scene. ”I’m grateful and it’s blessed to be right here proper now to be a free man speaking to y’all.”
District Lawyer Nathan Hochman stated he revered the jury’s choice.
“Our office remains committed to seeking accountability for those who break the law, no matter their status or influence,” Hochman stated in a press release. “Fame does not place anyone above the law, and we will not waver in our pursuit of justice for victims and the community.”
The decision got here on the peak of Rocky’s fame, if not the head of his music profession. The three-time Grammy nominee, trend mogul and actor has a banner 12 months within the works, and may now look to it with out the specter of jail hanging over him. He’s scheduled to headline the Rolling Loud music competition in March; he is among the celeb co-chairs of trend’s largest night time, the Met Gala, in Could; and he stars with Denzel Washington in director Spike Lee’s movie “Highest 2 Lowest,” set for launch in early summer time.
Prosecutors and their witnesses stated that he was beefing with a former good friend, A$AP Relli, with whom he had been in a crew who referred to as themselves the A$AP Mob since highschool. They stated the 2 males met up in Hollywood on Nov. 6, 2021, and after a scuffle Rocky pulled the gun and fired twice at Relli, who stated one of many pictures grazed his knuckle however was not significantly damage.
Rocky’s lawyer Joe Tacopina stated in his closing argument that Relli is “an angry pathological liar” who “committed perjury again and again and again and again.”
Rocky’s legal professionals and witnesses they referred to as stated Rocky had shot a prop gun that solely fires blanks, which he had been carrying for safety since taking it from a music video set months earlier. They stated he fired it as a warning as a result of Relli was attacking one other member of their crew.
The jurors had been additionally instructed that in the event that they discovered that Rocky fairly believed that he or one of many two buddies with him that night time had been in imminent hazard of damage, and that he used cheap pressure, they might discover the defendant not responsible.
The jurors had been escorted from the courthouse and all left promptly with out chatting with reporters. It wasn’t clear whether or not they reached the decision as a result of they believed he was actually carrying a prop gun or that he acted in self-defense. They didn’t should agree on their reasoning, or clarify it outdoors of the jury room. They only needed to attain the identical conclusion.
“They saw through this mirage of a case,” Tacopina stated. “He turned down a plea for almost no jail time because he was innocent.”
In his closing argument, Deputy District Lawyer John Lewin urged the jurors to not be influenced by the celeb or household elements of the case, and urged Rihanna bringing the youngsters to closing arguments was an try to control the jury.
“You are not allowed to consider how this might affect Rihanna and his kids,” the prosecutor stated. “We are all responsible for our own actions in the world.”
After the decision, Tacopina stated outdoors the courthouse that “Rocky didn’t need her right here, I’ll inform you that.”
He stated Rocky “needed to protect her from this. Wild horses couldn’t maintain her away.”
Rocky was greater than half-hour late for the studying of the decision, and regarded shaken and tense as he waited for it.
“There was a second when earlier than we heard the phrases from the clerk, he didn’t know if he was going to be spending the subsequent 20 years in jail or going house,” Tacopina stated.
Then got here the explosion of the emotion, and the leap into the group.
“I didn’t know how athletic he was,” Tacopina stated. “That was raw emotion, you guys got to see that. Even for us it was insane.”
