LOS ANGELES (CN) — The trial of Grammy-winning hip-hop artist A$AP Rocky, who’s been accused of firing a gun at a former friend in Hollywood, was finally graced by a much-anticipated cameo when Rihanna, Rocky’s longtime partner, mother of his two children and internationally famous pop star, appeared in court on Wednesday.
The singer of “Diamonds” and “We Found Love” sat quietly in the audience, flanked by Rocky’s mother and sister, as the court heard testimony from A$AP Relli, whose real name is Terell Ephron. Rocky, whose real name is Rakim Mayers, is charged with two felony counts of assault for the 2021 altercation.
Mayers and Ephron, who became friends in high school and cofounded the A$AP Mob rap collective, had had a falling out by the night of the shooting. Both were in Los Angeles for different reasons: Mayers was set to appear at a music festival, and was there with two other A$AP Mob members, Jamel Phillips, known as A$AP Twelvyy, and Illijah Ulanga, aka A$AP Illz. Ephron, who then worked as a talent manager in the music business, was there to support one of his clients.
When the four “linked up” on the night of Nov. 6, 2021, Ephron said, Mayers immediately began yelling at him: “What now, pussy?” The two former friends grabbed each other’s black hoodies and pushed each other. It was then, Ephron said, that Mayers first pulled the gun, a semiautomatic.
Security camera video footage shows glimpses of this first altercation: Mayers can be seen briefly brandishing the gun, then putting it back in the waist of his jeans.
After this first flashpoint, Ephron said, Mayers and the two others walked away. Ephron followed, irate, screaming at them.
“Why would you follow behind someone armed with a gun?” Deputy District Attorney Paul Przelomiec asked.
“I felt like i would never see him again,” Ephron answered. “I felt like he put the gun away. It was a busy street in Hollywood, he’s not gonna shoot that shit.”
“Did you believe in the moment that he would shoot you?” Przelomiec asked.
“When I was walking with him?” Ephron said. “No. Well, I don’t know. To be honest, I wasn’t thinking straight.”
Outside a parking lot, Mayers stopped and pulled the gun out.
“I see Rocky turn around,” Ephron testified. “It kind of looked like a movie. He kind of pointed down, he shot the first shot.” Ephron mimed how someone might hold a gun in the movies, holding it sideways and pointed slightly down. “I felt my hand hot.”
Ephron emerged from the shooting with a few bloody knuckles. Prosecutors have been reluctant to say whether or not this mild injury was the result of the shooting, but Ephron said that it was. After the first shot, he said, he hid behind Ulanga, using him as a shield. Mayers, still pointing the gun, tried to reach around Ulanga to get a clear look at Ephron, according to Ephron’s testimony.
“He’s trying to look for a way to shoot me,” Ephron said. As for Ulanga, Ephron said: “He was petrified, screaming, ‘No, no, no!’ He’s trying to move.”
Ulanga and Ephron fell down together, and Mayers fled the scene, according to Eprhon’s testimony. As Ephron and Ulanga walked away, Ulanga said, “You literally almost got me killed.” Ephron said he replied: “What? You came with him.”
Mayers’ attorney, Joe Tacopina, has said that Mayers did fire a gun — but that it was a “starter’s pistol” or prop gun that he had obtained while shooting a music video. That gun, Tacopina said, fires blanks. On Tuesday, Przelomiec asked Ephron if he thought the gun was real or fake.
“Oh, it was a real gun,” Ephron said. “I mean, I was hit. I was hit.”
Several nearby residents called 911 after they heard the two shots fired. When police responded to the scene, they searched the area, but found no evidence of a shooting — no bullets, no shell casings, no bullet holes and no blood. But Ephron said he returned to the scene, an hour or so after the shooting, along with his girlfriend, and found the two spent casings, put them in a brown paper bag he got from a donut shop, and days later turned the casings over to police.
And so Ephron’s testimony is the centerpiece of the prosecution’s case: Not only is he their star witness, he is said to have discovered the only physical evidence of the crime.
But Przelomiec has struggled over the last two days to draw a coherent story out Ephron, who himself has said he doesn’t remember many of the “small pieces” of the night very clearly, and has also said he is nervous on the stand.
At one point, Przelomiec played security camera footage of the parking lot about an hour after the shooting. The footage showed someone walking around the parking lot. Ephron insisted that the person in the video was himself, despite the fact that the man in the video was alone. Przelomiec tried, in vain, to get Ephron to realize his mistake. Finally, Ephron said: “It was a long time ago. Once I looked at the video, I realized that’s not me.”
Ephron also addressed the effect his accusations have had on his life.
“It’s been a living hell,” Ephron said. “Death threats. People labeling me a snitch for saying something that happened. My artists turned on me, my producers — all turned on me, because of the decision I made. I can’t back them no more.”
Tacopina will likely cross-examine Ephron on Thursday morning at 10:30 am. The trial is expected to last through to the end of next week. If convicted, Mayers faces up to 24 years in prison.