A$AP Rocky must stand trial for shooting gun at former friend, judge says | A$AP Rocky

A Los Angeles judge ruled Monday that there was enough evidence for A$AP Rocky to stand trial on charges of shooting a former friend and collaborator in the streets near a Hollywood hotel in 2021.

Superior Court Judge ML Villar made his decision during a preliminary hearing, after hearing about a day and a half of testimony from two witnesses. Rocky, who gave no visible reaction to the decision, pleaded not guilty to two counts of assault with a semi-automatic firearm.

The 35-year-old rapper, fashion mogul and two-time Grammy nominee is in a relationship with music star Rihanna, with whom he has two young sons.

Villar said the “totality of the video and testimony” shows there is sufficient evidence for the defendant to stand trial. She pointed out that preliminary hearings have much lower standards of proof than a trial.

“We’re not disappointed or surprised, we expected a trial, we’ve been planning a trial all along,” Rocky’s attorney, Joe Tacopina, said in court. “Rocky will be vindicated when all this is said and done, without a doubt.”

On the first day of the hearing, which resumed Monday after a long delay, Terell Ephron testified that he and Rocky, friends since childhood, had belonged to the same collective of musicians and artists at their New York high school.

He said their relationship began to deteriorate and reached a standoff in Hollywood on November 6, 2021, when he said Rocky first pointed a gun at him and, in a later confrontation, fired shots that grazed Ephron’s knuckles.

“You only need Mr. Ephron’s testimony,” assistant prosecutor Paul Przelomiec told the judge before his ruling, adding that surveillance video that captured part of the incident “corroborates exactly what Mr. Ephron said.”

Tacopina countered that “there are real problems with the plaintiff’s testimony,” adding, “I think there’s not enough evidence.” »

Tacopina established by interviewing a police detective earlier Monday that seven officers who searched a sidewalk and street about 20 minutes after the shots were allegedly fired found no evidence of the shooting, and that a pair of 9mm shell casings in police possession were recovered by Ephron, who returned to the scene approximately an hour after the confrontation.

Tacopina played body camera video from the officers, who searched the ground for about 10 minutes. Ephron, who first went to police to report the incident two days later, returned the shell casings which the detective said contained no recoverable fingerprints.

Prosecutors released video from near the scene where no one is initially visible, but what sounds like two gunshots can be heard. Then a man comes running around a street corner, then slows down and starts walking. The identity of the man is unclear in the video, but LAPD Detective Frank Flores said he has established that it was Rocky.

Flores testified that no 9mm pistol was recovered when a search warrant was served on Rocky.

Prosecutors showed an image from surveillance video showing a man in a hooded sweatshirt whose face is not visible holding what appears to be a gun, as well as another image of the same video showing the man’s face wearing a sweatshirt, with no visible weapon. Flores testified that the images led them to establish that it was Rocky.

Tacopina, who also represents Donald Trump in his New York criminal case, pressed the detective on the gun, suggesting that police had no way of knowing whether it was a loaded gun or even a a real weapon.

“This weapon or whatever it is hasn’t been tested, has it?” » asked Tacopina. “No, he was never found,” Flores said.

Tacopina asked, “You don’t know if it’s an operational weapon or a non-operational weapon or something?”

“Without having it, I can’t tell you if it’s usable,” the detective replied.

Tacopina also tried to cast doubt on Ephron’s minor hand injury, questioning why he waited until he returned to New York to seek medical attention.

He showed the detective a photo of the skinned fingers and said sarcastically, “It’s a miracle he survived that shooting.” »

The judge reprimanded him, one of many times she told Tacopina to change his tune.

Rocky was arrested at Los Angeles International Airport in the case in April and charged in August.