Rihanna and A$AP Rocky have everything to be grateful for this week as the rapper was found not guilty in a trial that could’ve given him up to 24 years in prison if the maximum sentence was given.
Everyone was silent in court and Rocky held his breath as the jury gave their verdict. When he was hit with ‘Not guilty, his knees buckled as he ran to bear hug the mother of his children, Rihanna. Here’s how he reacted:
Prosecutors had accused Rocky of shooting a nine-millimeter semi-automatic weapon during a confrontation with Terell Ephron.
A$AP, whose real name is Rakim Mayers, maintained he had only carried a harmless prop gun.
A$AP Rocky and A$AP Reilly, whose real name is Terell Ephron, were part of a rap group before they fell out. They had accused Rocky of being condescending due to his success and his relationship with Rihanna.
Defending attorney Joe Tacopina said the weapon was “absolutely nothing more than a prop gun… a starter gun, a blank gun, a fake gun. It’s used in pop movies and music videos.”
After the case had been reported to the police, they searched the crime scene for hours and did not find any weapon or even shell casings. Then, out of the blue, Terell found a pair of nine-millimeter shell casings he said he had picked up from the street where he was shot at. The story was not adding up. Why did the victim find the shell casing later in a place that the police had searched for hours without results?
The weeks-long case had taken a toll on Rihanna who had to be by her boyfriend’s side throughout the trial.
When the case first hit the prosecutors, they had offered Rocky a deal since they had a blurry surveillance video showing Rocky and Ephron in a parking garage arguing.
Ephron went on to claim that Mayers had pulled a gun from his waistband and pointed it at him, saying he’d kill him there and then two shots were fired, with a bullet grazing Ephron’s hand.
But till the trial was concluded, neither party could provide the guns that were used during the confrontation.
Mayers had also rejected the plea deal given to him by the prosecutors and decided to fight it out in trial.
