LOS ANGELES (CN) — Terell Eprhon returned to the witness stand Friday as the key witness for the prosecution in the assault trial of star rapper A$AP Rocky. The defendant, whose real name is Rakim Mayers, is the common-law husband of the far more famous pop star Rihanna, who appeared in court for the third day in a row.
Ephron has said that Mayers fired two shots at him from a semiautomatic handgun, the culmination of a falling out the two old friends had. Police found no bullets or bullet holes at the scene. The only physical evidence gathered from the shooting are two bullet casings which Ephron says he found on the ground after returning to the scene an hour later. Ephron also says one of the bullets grazed his left hand, bloodying his knuckles.
But Ephron struggled to keep his composure Friday, the second day of his cross-examination by Rocky’s burly New York defense attorney Joe Tacopina, who repeatedly tried to demonstrate Ephron’s unreliability, that his story was vague and ever shifting. Ephron appeared to grow weary of the long back-and-forth, cutting a sad and disaffected figure. Time and again, he appeared not to understand what was being asked of him, though it was unclear if this was a genuine failing on his part or simply an attempt to stonewall his adversary.
When asked by Tacopina why he waited days before going to the police to report the shooting, Ephron acknowledged: “I don’t really like the police. I don’t even like being here right now, to be honest. It’s nerve-wracking.”
Ephron’s statements have shifted throughout the trial. When asked by Tacopina if the bullet that grazed his left hand “caused any permanent physical damage,” he at first said yes. When asked what that damage was, he replied, “I mean just look at it. My life’s a living hell,” referring to impact the news about the trial has had on his life — he’s been labeled a snitch on social media, and the artists he used to manage have left him. Moments later, he acknowledged there was no permanent physical damage, only to say, minutes later: “I could go around and show everyone now,” referring to the wound on his fingers, “I still got it, three years later. I still got it.”
Perhaps most curiously of all, Ephron has insisted that a number of recordings of him speaking on the phone to someone are fakes and that used artificial intelligence to mimic his voice.
Mayers’ defense is built around the proposition that he did fire the shots that night, but that the gun was a “starter’s pistol” or prop gun, and that the shots were blanks. Tacopina has sought to portray Ephron as the aggressor that night.
“You never saw Rocky carry a gun before, correct?” Tacopina asked.
“He’s a superstar,” Ephron replied, one of many non-answers he employed throughout the day. “I don’t really chill with him every day… I don’t know what he does.” He eventually acknowledged that he wasn’t sure.
“But you know for sure he doesn’t carry a prop gun,” said Tacopina with a tinge of sarcasm.
“Who carries a prop gun?” Ephron replied, finding the notion ridiculous. “Who’s gonna come to a situation with a prop gun?”
Later, Ephron said he had angrily challenged Mayers to shoot him.
“It’s because you knew it wasn’t a real gun,” Tacopina charged.
“Absolutely not,” Ephron shot back.
“We gotta take your word for that?” Tacopina said, with a hint of contempt in his voice.
“I gotta take your word?” Ephron responded.
Tensions already running a tad high, Tacopina eventually turned to the recovery of the spent casings. Ephron said he returned to the scene of the shooting, near a parking lot, along with his girlfriend to look for the shells. Tacopina then indicated he wanted to show Ephron a photograph.
“Are you kidding me?!” said Deputy District Attorney John Lewin loudly, when he saw the photo. What appeared to be a heated sidebar ensued. The judge folded the photo, to cover parts of it, and allowed Tacopina to show it to Ephron, but not the jury. When he asked if that was his girlfriend, Ephron replied blankly: “I don’t know. I can’t tell. She got makeup on.” Seconds later, Ephron took a long swig of water, and then squeezed the plastic bottle with a crunch.
After the jury left for their lunch break, the two sets of lawyers went at it.
“The picture they were trying to show him, it was designed to absolutely enrage the witness or to prejudice the jury,” Lewin said angrily, suggesting that Ephron wanted to “protect his family.”
“She’s not family,” Tacopina said. “She’s a prostitute. Oh, she’s not john?” He added: “He literally just told the jury he doesn’t know if that was his girlfriend, that goes to his credibility.”
“I think he was being protective,” said Superior Court Judge Mark Arnold, losing patience with just about everyone in the room.
“Absolutely he was being protective,” Lewin said. “None of it goes to the actual facts of what was in this case.”
Lewin and Tacopina, who have already nearly come to blows with the jury out of the room, began shouting at each other. Lewin called Tacopina’s prop gun defense “garbage.”
“Oh, we’ll see what the jury says!” Tacopina shouted. Pointing his index finger at Lewin, he called him a “clown.” His client, Mayers, put his arm up in front of his attorney to keep him from getting any closer to the prosecutor.
“Alright we’re off the record,” Arnold said, throwing up his hands, standing up and walking off the podium, leaving the two lawyers to bicker with each other.
“I’ll put my professional record against yours any day of the week!” Lewin shouted.
“Yeah? Go to the Durst house again!” Tacopina shouted back, referring to Robert Durst, the convicted murderer and subject of the HBO docuseries “The Jinx,” in which Lewin, as the lead prosecutor on the case, was heavily featured. It was later reported that Lewin vacationed at the home of Durst’s then-wife shortly after the conviction.
Lewin retorted: “Time for more steroids!”
Tacopina’s cross-examination of Ephron finally concluded, though he returns to the stand on Monday for more redirect. The trial is expected to last until the end of next week.