The decision was hardly pronounced when the American rapper and hip -hop artist Rakim Mayers, better known as A $ AP Rocky, smiles in the arms of his partner and singer Rihanna dive. A court in Los Angeles ruled on Tuesday, after a three -week case, to his advantage: not guilty. “Thanks for saving my life,” the rapper told the jury members when he walked out of the room.
Mayers was on trial because he would have shot a semi-automatic firearm in Los Angeles in 2021 after a heated discussion on his childhood friend, Terell Ephron. Ephron stated to the police that the bullets were shining his knuckles. Mayers risked up to two years in prison.
The court previously offered Mayers a deal: a prison sentence of six months in exchange for a confession, but the artist persisted to be innocent. According to him, it had only been a fake gun, which made it impossible to have fired bullets.
The ruling came after a three -week lawsuit. According to the jury members there was reasonable doubts about his debt. It is not clear whether they came to the verdict because they believed that Mayers used a fake gun, or because he acted out of self -defense. The jury members did not have to explain their reasoning any further.
“This whole experience has been insane in the last four years,” said Mayers, in the midst of dozens of photographers who approached him outside the court. “It is a blessing to stand here now and talk to you like a free man.”