A$AP Rocky’s lawyer is anticipated to complete delivering his closing argument Friday on the hip-hop star’s trial, the place the protection is attempting to influence jurors that the previous pal Rocky is charged with taking pictures at took the stand and “lied to you about so many crucial things.”
Closing arguments started Thursday, when Rocky’s longtime companion, the singing celebrity Rihanna, walked quietly into the downtown Los Angeles courtroom after proceedings started, as she has a number of instances in the course of the three-week trial. She introduced their two younger sons.
Rocky’s lawyer Joe Tacopina reminded the jurors that their directions permit them to ignore every little thing a witness says if the jurors consider they’re being dishonest in any a part of their testimony.
He informed them in the event that they try this with Rocky’s accuser, who goes by A$AP Relli, “there is no case.”
“This is a man whose tongue is a stranger to the truth,” Tacopina mentioned. “The important facts he gave you turned out to be lies.”
Jurors are anticipated to start deliberations on two felony counts of assault with a semiautomatic firearm after the protection finishes its closing and prosecutors supply a rebuttal.
Within the prosecution’s closing argument, Deputy District Lawyer Paul Przelomiec informed jurors they’ve “one critical question” to reply.
“Was it a real gun or was it a fake gun?” he mentioned. “Nothing else is in dispute.”
He informed jurors the “overwhelming evidence in this case is that it was a real gun” that Rocky fired on a Hollywood avenue nook on Nov. 6, 2021.
The protection says the gun was a prop that fires solely blanks that Rocky took for safety months earlier from the set of his music video for “DMB,” which featured Rihanna.
Rihanna held one in every of her sons on her lap and tried to maintain him quiet with a toy as she watched. Throughout a break, Rocky walked down the corridor, previous jurors, holding the youthful boy.
Rocky may obtain a sentence of as much as 24 years in jail if convicted.
Rocky and Relli turned mates in highschool in New York. Each have been members of a crew of artistic sorts known as the A$AP Mob.
Their friendship continued after Rocky gained world fame with No. 1 albums in 2012 and 2013, however by 2021 their bond had turn into a beef.
They met outdoors a Hollywood lodge and scuffled. In a second confrontation moments later, Rocky fired the pictures. Relli mentioned his knuckles have been grazed by one in every of them.
Tacopina known as the damage “knuckle scrapes.”
“There’s no bullet in the world that could’ve done that,” Tacopina mentioned, displaying jurors an image of Relli’s hand.
A$AP Twelvyy, a pal who was with Rocky, testified that Rocky fired blanks from a prop gun that everybody concerned knew he carried. His tour supervisor testified to the identical. Each have been clearly coached and coordinated, Przelomiec mentioned.
“What they got on the stand and told you were lies,” he mentioned.
Neither facet produced a gun as proof.
“There is literally no evidence of a prop gun,” the prosecutor mentioned.
Tacopina countered that “there’s definitely a lot less evidence of a real gun.”
