Jury in A$AP Rocky's felony assault trial gets the case and will begin deliberations
The jury in the felony assault trial of rapper A$AP Rocky got the case late Friday and will begin deliberating next week.
The Los Angeles jury of seven women and five men will begin discussing the two counts of assault with a semiautomatic firearm on Tuesday, after a three-day weekend.
Convictions on both counts could mean up to 24 years in prison for the hip-hop star, fashion mogul and longtime partner of singing superstar Rihanna, with whom he has two toddler sons.
In closing arguments Friday, a prosecutor told jurors that they had to set aside their feelings for Rocky, Rihanna, and their children.
Rihanna came to court shortly after closing arguments began Thursday, and for the first time she brought their 2-year-old and 1-year-old sons. Lewin suggested it was an attempt to manipulate jurors before they get the case later Friday.
"They brought in two adorable children yesterday for closing argument," Lewin said. "They haven't been here any other time. And you have to ask yourselves, why children that age would be here in a situation like this?"
He added, "You are not allowed to consider how this might affect Rihanna and his kids. We are all responsible for our own actions in the world."
Rihanna was sitting with Rocky's mother and sister, without the children, on Friday.
Rocky is accused of firing two shots at a former friend on a Hollywood street corner in 2021.
His attorneys are arguing that he only fired blanks from a prop gun he had picked up for security on a music video shoot.
During his closing argument, lawyer Joe Tacopina took aim at his accuser, who goes by A$AP Relli, casting him as the aggressor and an unreliable liar.
Tacopina showed the jury belligerent text messages from just before the confrontation, later deleted by Relli, where he urges Rocky to beat him up. The prosecution had shown only Rocky's angry responses to suggest he started the fight. But it was not the opposing lawyers' fault, he said.
"Their witness lied to them, lied to police, and deleted the messages," Tacopina said. "He destroyed evidence."
Tacopina showed jurors the transcript of the moment during testimony that he confronted Relli about the messages.
"At first he said, 'I don't recall.' Then I showed him the messages," Tacopina said. "What did he say next? His go-to line. 'It's fake! It's fake!' Anything that crushed him was fake."
He dwelled on how combative Relli was on the stand.
"That was in front of you," Tacopina said. "Imagine what he's like in the street."
Shifting to the street, Tacopina narrated the surveillance video that partially showed the initial confrontation to say Relli started the fight. He pointed out that the video shows Relli raising his arm to take on Rocky as the first move — though Rocky is out of frame at that moment.
"If you had to make a decision, the most important in your life or that of your family's, on his word, would you do it? You all know what the answer to that question is," the lawyer said. Then he pointed at Rocky. "What you're being asked to do is to make that decision in the most important matter of his life."
Relli said his knuckles were grazed by one of the shots but he was otherwise not injured.
Even if jurors don't buy the phony gun argument, they can acquit by finding that Rocky was acting in defense of himself or his friends.
Neither side produced a gun as evidence.
In his rebuttal, Lewin said, "If it is a prop gun, there is no self-defense."
Lewin told jurors this could be "a five-minute verdict."
"Once you decide it's not a prop gun — and it's not a prop gun," he said, "the case is over."
He returned repeatedly to Rocky's status.
"He is a big, important man, and everybody serves him," Lewin said.
That includes, he said, two men from his inner circle who testified he had picked up the prop gun at a music video and for months had been carrying it.
"They were just liars, start to finish," Lewin said.
During a break in the presentation, Judge Mark Arnold told Lewin to stop the references to Rocky's family.
"The manner in which you did it — I don't think it was improper," the judge said. "But you cannot mention again Rihanna being in the courtroom, or the kids being in the courtroom."
