A$AP Rocky is found not guilty in his felony gun trial

A$AP Rocky has been found not guilty in his felony gun trial.

The verdict was announced Feb. 18 at the Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center in Los Angeles. The 36-year-old rapper, actor and designer, whose legal name is Rakim Mayers, hugged his attorneys when the news was announced. The courtroom erupted in celebration. He faced a maximum sentence of 24 years in state prison.

Mayers’s longtime partner Rihanna was present for the verdict, according to Rolling Stone reporter Nancy Dillon. Rihanna made headlines for being present for closing statements with the couple's two sons, RZA, 2, and Riot Rose, 1, on Feb. 13.

Mayers's mother, Renee Black, and sister, Erika B, were in the front row for the verdict, according to Dillon.

Ahead of the verdict, defense attorney Joseph Tacopina told TMZ that the case "should be a five-minute acquittal."

Mayers, who did not testify, was charged with two felony counts of assault with a semiautomatic firearm stemming from a confrontation with his high school friend Terell Ephron, who goes by A$AP Relli, on Nov. 6, 2021, in Hollywood. The trial began on Jan. 24 and was presided over by Superior Court Judge Mark Arnold.

This wouldn’t have been Rocky’s first time in prison. He was arrested at age 16 on attempted murder charges and spent two weeks in Rikers Island in New York City before the charges were reduced and he was released. He was also arrested for assault in Stockholm, Sweden, in 2019 and jailed. He was found guilty in the case that drew national attention, but had been released by that point and was not sentenced to additional jail time.

Just prior to the start of the trial, Mayers rejected a deal from prosecutors of a six-month jail sentence.

What happened during the trial?

Mayers and Ephron met in high school in New York City and were part of the A$AP Mob collective. In the years before their confrontation, they had a falling out.

Ephron, who’s suing Mayers for $30 million over the alleged shooting, testified that Mayers shot at him twice with a semiautomatic handgun, causing bloody injuries to his knuckles. Police searched for the spent shell casings at the scene and didn’t recover them. Ephron said he went back and found two. Prosecutors had grainy surveillance footage of parts of the dispute and presented a 911 call of someone saying they saw the shooting.

Tacopina, who previously represented President Trump, said the star didn’t have a real gun but was carrying a starter gun that only fired blanks. Tacopina said Rocky carried it as a prop for security reasons. Mayers’s tour manager, Lou Levin, identified the prop gun as a Glock 26. Levin said he later gave it to the director of Mayers’s “D.M.B.” music video in New York City because it did not serve its purpose as a deterrent.

Among the biggest trial moments was Rihanna appearing in court for closing statements with the couple’s sons. According to the Associated Press, the boys, outfitted in suits, could be heard “cooing” as the prosecutors wrapped up their case. During a break, Mayers carried his younger son down the hall past the jury.

Rihanna was in court at least five different days. She told an AP reporter who asked how she was holding up, “I'm good, thank you.”

Ephron’s testimony lasted five days and was contentious. At one point, he shouted at Mayers, “You did this to yourself!” Tacopina brought up Ephron’s lawsuit, suggesting he was motivated by money. He called Ephron’s injury “knuckle scrapes,” saying there was “no bullet in the world that could’ve done that.” At one point, Ephron claimed recordings purportedly of him talking about the shooting that were played at the trial were fake and created by AI.

Prosecutors accused Mayers of coaching his friends in court. When A$AP Twelvyy (real name: Jamel Phillips) was on the stand as a defense witness, he was asked what the initials “AWGE” — the name of Mayers’s record label and creative agency — stand for. Mayers, who keeps it a secret, yelled from the defense table, “Don't say it!”

In an only-in-Hollywood moment, one of the witnesses — LAPD Sgt. Thomas Zizzo — turned out to be the son of Real Housewives of Beverly Hills’s Erika Jayne.

There was ‘plenty of reasonable doubt’ for the jury: Legal expert

Ahead of the verdict, attorney Lauren Johnson-Norris of Johnson Criminal Law Group told Yahoo Entertainment it was an uphill battle for the district attorney.

“There really isn't a lot of evidence to support their prosecution's theory in this case,” she said. “Where is the gun that was used? How do we know the shell casings came from the mystery gun? And the text message debacle was an embarrassment for the DA. Presenting only Rocky's text responses without Relli's words to put things in context and later having Relli impeached by his own words was a disaster for the prosecution's case.”

Johnson-Norris said there was “plenty of reasonable doubt for the jury to hang its hat on.”

While much was made about Rihanna bringing the couple’s children to court, including by the district attorney in his closing statement, Johnson-Norris said that optics are very much a part of the defense.

“Defense counsel's job is to do everything they can to humanize their clients,” she said. “The jury was reminded that Rocky is a husband and a father and can't avoid thinking about the impact on his family. I was not surprised they were present in court, as Tacopina knows exactly how to move a jury to care about the consequences of their vote on his client.”

The same goes for Mayers’s personal appearance. The designer, who made his Paris Fashion Week debut last year, made stylish entrances and exits from court each day as camera crews chased him. Some days, he wore sunglasses in court.

“Clients need to show up like they are dressed for the most important day of their life. In this case, Rocky did just that,” Johnson-Norris said.

What’s next for A$AP Rocky?

Mayers is scheduled to headline the Rolling Loud music fest in California in March and co-chair the 2025 Met Gala in May. He’s also expected to release his fourth studio album, Don't Be Dumb, this year and has a role in Spike Lee’s upcoming film, Highest 2 Lowest, which is expected to drop this summer.