(CN) — The man who accused hip-hop artist A$AP Rocky of firing a gun at him in a 2021 altercation grew agitated under cross-examination on Thursday as the rapper’s attorney pressed him on his attitude toward his former friend — while pop superstar Rihanna, Rocky’s partner and mother of their two children, watched from the audience for a second day.
Rocky, whose real name is Rakim Mayers, is facing two felony counts for assault stemming from a 2021 incident in which A$AP Relli accused him of firing a gun at him. The two met in high school in New York, and formed the A$AP Mob rap collective. The pair decided to meet on Nov. 6, 2021, to work out their differences after a falling out.
On the witness stand, A$AP Relli, whose real name is Terrell Ephron, got into a heated exchange with his former childhood friend’s attorney, Joe Tacopina, while the attorney turned the court’s attention to Ephron’s Instagram posts displaying luxury items. In opening statements, Tacopina had told the jury Ephron’s prime motivation behind the case was money.
“I don’t understand these questions. Why am I answering questions about my Instagram right now?” Ephron said.
Ephron claimed that “the whole world” has been sending him death threats due to his involvement in the case.
Tacopina asked him why, and Ephron said: “Cause you’re saying I’m an extortionist.”
Ephron wasn’t the only one bristling in the courtroom. Superior Court Judge Mark Arnold informed Ephron multiple times to stop offering additional information in his answers and instructed him to succinctly answer the questions.
“You’re going to get through a lot faster if you just answer the questions,” Arnold said before calling the first of several recesses.
According to prosecutors, Mayers fired two shots at Ephron during an argument on the sidewalk. He was not hurt from the altercation and had only a few scraped knuckles to show from the incident.
Ephron presented a noticeably different demeanor after court resumed following the lunch break, answering nearly all of Mayer’s questions with the statement: “I don’t recall.”
The day prior, Deputy District Attorney Paul Przelomiec struggled to draw a coherent story out Ephron. Tacopina, in an attempt to contradict Ephron’s earlier testimony, showed Ephron text messages where he expressed ill intent toward Mayers leading up to the shooting.
In one message, sent two months before the altercation, Ephron — who now works as a talent manager in the music business — swore at Mayers for reportedly not supporting his project. In another, Ephron said that he would beat Mayers up if he didn’t pay for their friend’s body to be flown to New York.
“You trying to make me look like I’ve got some type of animosity toward this dude,” Ephron said Thursday. “I don’t. I never did. Never. To this day, I still don’t.”
As the day went on, tensions remained high. Attorneys on both sides interacted combatively, to the point that Arnold yelled “stop” multiple times and told the lawyers to “stop squabbling.”
Presenting security camera video footage from minutes before the shooting showing Ephron and Mayers shoving each other, Tacopina asked Ephron whose hand moved first. Ephron responded that he could not see and that the footage was blurry, growing somewhat frustrated. When Tacopina noted that it appeared his left hand reached toward Mayers first, Ephron became agitated.
“I’m so big, if I wanted to fight this man and I’m getting touched, don’t you think I’m gonna protect myself?” Ephron said, asking the attorney to replay the video.
Arnold interrupted the exchange, instructing Tacopina to save his description of the version of events for closing arguments and not to replay the video.
“The jury will make the final determination,” Arnold said.
When asked if he had earlier testified that he felt the barrel of a gun pressed against his stomach, Ephron said he didn’t recall and accused Tacopina of trying to “trip him up.”
“He pointed it to me, to my head and to my stomach, and he said he was going to kill me,” Ephron said about Mayers and the gun.
The defense has argued that Mayers fired blanks out of a “starter’s pistol,” or prop gun, and that Ephron planted the two spent casings he purported to have found at the scene.
The cross-examination of Ephron ended before Tacopina questioned him about the purported shooting itself but is expected to continue Friday morning. The trial is expected to last through the end of next week. Mayers faces up to 24 years in prison if he is convicted.