The trial against 36-year-old American rapper A$AP Rocky starts on Friday. He is on trial for allegedly shooting his childhood friend Terell Ephron twice with a semi-automatic firearm in Los Angeles in 2021, after a heated argument. The trial is expected to take three weeks. That reports the BBC.
Last year, alleged victim Ephron told police that the bullets grazed his knuckles. But the injuries did not prevent him from taking the plane to New York. Once he arrived on the east coast, he decided to go to the hospital for a check-up.
A$AP Rocky, whose real name is Rakim Mayers, was offered a prison sentence of ‘only’ 180 days, but he turned down the offer because he says he is innocent. The partner of world-famous singer Rihanna states that he only carried a fake gun on the night in question, which made it impossible for him to fire bullets, according to the AP news agency.
24 years in prison
It took the defendant and plaintiff parties 2.5 days to choose five male and seven female jurors from more than a hundred candidates. The court can impose a prison sentence of 24 years on the rapper.
Nevertheless, A$AP’s lawyer told the American press that the case is being viewed with confidence. “We are ready. It took a long time,” lawyer Joe Tacopina told the AP news agency. “It is something that has been hanging over the heads of Rocky and Rihanna and their family for a while. We are eager to get this started and get this over with.”
Rocky’s legal team tries to undermine the alleged victim’s story in several ways. For example, Ephron only filed a report after a few days and no firearm was found. The damage to the victim’s knuckle could also be caused by a punch, the rapper’s lawyer told the Reuters news agency.
Trump
The popular American rapper also came into contact with the law in 2019 after he assaulted a 19-year-old boy in Sweden. The court in Stockholm imposed a suspended prison sentence of two years on the rapper. The rapper also had to pay about 1,200 euros to the victim. At the time, Rocky could count on the support of Donald Trump, at that time also the American president, who openly wondered whether the Swedish legal system was sound and called the prime minister of the Scandinavian country.