A former friend who alleges rapper A$AP Rocky fired a gun at him in 2021 testified Monday that no one involved in the incident gave him any indication the firearm might have been fake — as the defense contends — until the day this trial started. The testimony from the trial’s key witness, who goes by A$AP Relli, came at the end of a long, frustrating slog on the stand in a Los Angeles courtroom that drove him to shout, “You're annoying, bro!” and much more at the lead defense attorney.

In its re-direct questioning on Monday, the prosecution pushed back against the idea that for security Rocky carried a starter pistol that only shot blanks. Deputy District Attorney Paul Przelomiec showed Relli texts from after the incident in which he told Rocky “U try killing me” and that Rocky had tried to take him from his daughter. “At any point did he respond to your text messages to tell you it was a fake gun?” The prosecutor asked Relli, who testified his knuckles were grazed in the incident.

“No,” he responded. He said the same of the two mutual friends who had been there. The testimony was the first time the jury heard how late the prop gun defense was revealed, despite more than three years passing and several days of testimony at a preliminary hearing in 2023. Rihanna, the superstar singer who is Rocky’s longtime partner and the mother of his two toddler sons, was not in the courtroom after being in the audience to support him for the trial’s previous three days.

Rocky has pleaded not guilty to two felony counts of assault with a semiautomatic firearm, charges that with a conviction carry a maximum penalty of 24 years in prison. A day earlier, the hip-hop star was up a Grammy Award for the third time at a ceremony just two miles away, but lost to one of the night’s big winners, Kendrick Lamar. Relli who first took the stand on Wednesday, had been often evasive and just as often angry under cross-examination from Rocky's lawyer.

That came to a head Monday as the defense got a chance to ask its last set of questions before he was excused. “I’m not on trial. I’ve been here for five days, dealing with this man,” he said. “I’ve been looking stupid for five days.”. He ignored the judge’s warnings not to make such statements. “You think you’re slick!” he shouted at Tacopina moments later. “And I’m on to you! You’re not going to keep tripping me up! You’re not slick!”.

Last week, Relli had angrily declared that recordings of phone calls the defense played for him about getting money from Rocky were faked. Defense lawyers contend the only reason Relli went to police about the incident was so he could extract money from Rocky in the civil case he has also filed. On Monday, the man who recorded those calls, Wally Sajimi, took the stand as an out-of-order witness for the defense, and the jurors heard the recordings themselves.

In one of them, a voice resembling Relli's says he'll stop participating in the criminal case as soon as he gets paid. “Once I walk away, when I get my cash, the case will get way weaker," says the recording that Sajimi testified he made in 2022. “It’s going to be hard for the DA to find me. Because I’m going to be on another island.”. Sajimi testified that he builds websites for artists and brands, and has worked with both Rocky and Relli, but said he is much closer to Rocky, who he considers a friend.