A jury returned the verdict on Tuesday afternoon after deliberating for just three hours. Rapper A$AP Rocky has been found not guilty of felony assault, following a high profile trial in Los Angeles. A jury returned the verdict on Tuesday afternoon after deliberating for just three hours. Upon hearing the verdict, he hip-hop star, whose real name is Rakim Mayers, turned and ran to embrace jubilant supporters behind him – falling over as he did so.
![[Rapper A$AP Rocky has been found not guilty of felony assault, following a high profile trial in Los Angeles in which he was accused of shooting at a friend]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2025/01/23/05/ASAP_Rocky_Shooting_Trial_34762.jpg)
The rapper, 36, was charged with two felony counts of assault with a semiautomatic firearm. If convicted, he could have faced up to 24 years in prison. On the eve of trial, Mayers turned down a prosecution offer of just six months in jail, along with probation and other conditions, if he would plead guilty to one count. Prosecutors alleged that Mayers twice fired a gun at his former longtime friend and fellow rapper A$AP Relli, during a dispute on a Hollywood street in 2021.
![[Mayers is the partner of global megastar Rihanna, who attended much of the trial and brought their two toddler sons to closing arguments]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2025/02/13/22/20/rihanna-thumb.jpg)
Relli, real name Terrell Ephron, was the key witness for the prosecution. In his testimony, which made up the bulk of the prosecution’s case, he said his knuckles were grazed by one of the shots, but he was otherwise uninjured. The defense argued that Mayers fired blanks from a prop gun that he picked up from a music video set, bringing in two of the rapper’s inner circle to attest to that. His lawyer Joe Tacopina said in his closing argument that Ephron is “an angry pathological liar” who “committed perjury again and again and again and again.”.
Mayers is the partner of global megastar Rihanna, who attended much of the trial and brought their two toddler sons to closing arguments. However, deputy district attorney John Lewin suggested their presence was an attempt to manipulate jurors. “They brought in two adorable children... for closing argument,” Lewin said. “They haven’t been here any other time. And you have to ask yourselves, why children that age would be here in a situation like this?”.
