A$AP Rocky won

Rihanna certainly has a lot more to celebrate than just her birthday today. Mostly, the freedom of A$AP Rocky, her partner and the father of her two children, who, up until this week, was facing more than 20 years in prison, though the prosecution said they were only seeking between 8 and 12, over a 2021 incident involving his lifelong friend, Terell Ephron aka A$AP Relli. 

Essentially, the case boils down to an allegation made by Relli that a “gun was pulled” on him and that he was shot by Rocky during the 2021 altercation. But Rocky and several of his friends, mostly members of the A$AP Mob, testified that all he did was fire a warning shot from a fake gun in order to stop Relli from viciously attacking another member of the group.

Cameras captured the emotional moment the not guilty verdict was read in a Los Angeles courthouse. In the video, Rocky can be seen leaping into the arms of Rihanna, his mother, and sister upon learning he was found not guilty on the first count read out in the court. The judge urged him to return to the side of his lawyers for the rest of the reading, which also resulted in a not guilty verdict. 

 

This was certainly a happy ending for Rocky and his family after a weeks-long trial that began in January and was riddled with newsworthy and explosive moments in court, which included heated confrontations between the defense and prosecution teams, the judge’s admission of his own error and Rocky yelling out during a friend’s testimony, urging him not to reveal the true meaning on the acronym AGWE, for which there are Fight Club-like rules within the larger A$AP Mob. 

But throughout the trial, and despite a favourable verdict for him in the end, many people, including members of the jury tasked with deciding his fate, have expressed a lack of confidence in his complete innocence, and seem to be grappling with the conflict of deciding whether a crime was committed, but not having enough evidence to convict him for the crimes he was being charged with. 

A lot of the doubt from jury members stemmed from several inconsistencies that arose throughout the trial, specifically as they pertained to the bullets, shell casings and existence of the fake gun. First, the defence team leaned into the absence of bullets from the prop gun. Later on though, in closing arguments, they changed their tune, revealing that the fake gun did produce bullets. The defense team also placed a lot of weight on the argument that Rocky’s gun was not real – rather, just one that he carried around for protection. But the findings of a police search of Rocky’s West Hollywood home did little to support this. 

The search, conducted in April of 2022, yielded a rifle, a shotgun and a .44 magnum. But no fake gun, which didn’t bode well for the defense team. This, along with the inconsistencies surrounding the production of bullets, led a few jurors to doubt that the gun was, in fact, a fake.

“I didn’t really believe it. I didn’t think that they had really convincing evidence that it was a prop gun and they couldn’t produce it as evidence. Some of the testimony didn’t sound accurate or truthful but we just tried to stick to what was presented and that’s how we reached our verdict,” she a juror in an interview with YouTuber Nique at Night.

Despite the doubt of the jurors, seven women and five men, none of whom were Black, came to a unanimous decision, and fairly quickly, needing just three hours (outside of a 90-minute lunch break) to reach a verdict. When it comes to the speed in which they arrived at their decision, it was unclear whether that was an indication of a guilty or not guilty verdict. 

Independent reporter Meghann Cuniff, who has been dubbed “arguably the most influential legal journalist working today” by the Washington Post and has garnered quite the social media following for her celebrity court case coverage on stars including Tory Lanez, Young Thug, Danny Masterson, and Diddy, told CBS News Chicago that she wasn’t sure what to expect.

“Generally when people are covering trials, a fast turnaround like that could mean a guilty verdict and not guilty verdicts can take longer,” she explained.  

According to Meghann, some of the other concerns of the jurors stemmed from the fact that Relli had recovered the casings himself. But even besides the hoopla with the bullets, the speculations about a fake gun, and Relli’s recovery of the bullets, the case was riddled with allegations of jealousy, extortion, and even external lawsuits of defamation against not only Rocky, but his lawyer, Joe Tacopina, too. The defamation lawsuit could not begin to be litigated until the criminal case reached this week’s verdict. 

According to Relli, Joe’s remarks to the press about having “two eye witnesses who back Rocky’s story, not only that Relli wasn’t hit by bullet fragments, but no shot was even fired,” was defamatory. Relli is seeking $30 million in damages, something that Joe has touched on time and time again, in what’s believed to be an attempt to support his claims that his client was being extorted by Relli, jealous of Rocky’s rise to fame. 

So if the jury felt that some sort of crime was committed, weren’t entirely sold on the argument that the gun was a fake, and admittedly had their doubts about Rocky’s innocence, how did he manage to secure a not guilty verdict?

For starters, Rocky secured himself the best lawyers money could buy. Joe was adamant he was going to be acquitted for this crime and he was correct, which suggests the prosecutors may have chosen the wrong charges to begin with. They simply didn’t have enough evidence for what they were after, and the jurors recognized that.

“The feeling was that there was a gun, unfortunately they didn’t have enough evidence to convict on the charges that were handed down to us,” the doubtful juror interviewed by Nique at Night continued.

I think the prosecution hoped that many of the gaps in its case would be filled by stereotypical assumptions about rappers and Black men in general. So often in cases involving rappers, lawyers turn to lyrics as evidence of guilt, proof of character, and as some sort of indication of criminality. The allowance and permissibility of this tactic is something that’s still hotly debated in court. 

But by securing the (expensive) legal team that he did, a lot of these negative stereotypes were neutralized, and less likely to influence the jury, who were also grappling with inconsistencies on the prosecution’s side. Shortly before the trial began, Rocky “respectfully” declined a plea deal from prosecutors. The deal stipulated that if he pled guilty to one assault charge and admitted the use of a gun, he could serve just 180 days in jail and have a three-year probation term and a seven-year suspended prison sentence to serve only if he violated the terms of his probation. He would also have to take anger management classes and do nearly 500 hours of community service. He’d also lose his firearms as a convicted felon. 

Rocky’s denial of this deal spurred a great deal of conversation online. With the amount of time he was facing if the trial didn’t go his way, there were a lot of people who thought the stakes of leaving his family were too high for him to even risk not taking the deal. But in the end, his refusal to take the deal was perhaps an early indication of his unwavering belief and faith in his legal team. And perhaps his belief in the jury, who he thanked for ‘saving’ his life upon leaving the courthouse.

Another thing that has come up so much in conversation after the verdict was read is the role of jury instructions, and the true definition of reasonable doubt. The jury was clearly very deliberate in their quest to find the truth and serve justice. When asked about what the reception was to Relli’s testimony, the doubtful juror had this to say:

“I believe that he felt his life was in danger. I feel for all of them. I feel like this could have been avoided. I hope that in the future Mr. Mayers [Rocky] really thinks about his actions before he’s upset with somebody. He has a lot to lose. He’s lucky we didn’t have enough evidence to hand down a conviction.”

Like members of the jury, I, too, am conflicted. Part of me is thrilled that a Black man gets to go home to his partner, his mother, his sister and his children. But the other part of me worries about the intricacies of the justice system, the advantages afforded to those who can afford them. And I especially wonder about how many innocent lives have been unfairly prosecuted and how many guilty people are walking among us. 

Attached - Rocky and Rihanna seen in LA after being in court the other day, and Rocky shopping yesterday in Beverly Hills.