LOS ANGELES — The person claiming to be the victim in the case against A$AP Rocky appeared in court again on Thursday to answer questions about the incident where he alleges he was shot by the rapper and sustained injuries.
Identified as A$AP Relli, with the birth name Terell Ephron, the individual showed reluctance and irritation when defense attorney Joe Tacopina initially questioned him. This led to a break in proceedings for the prosecution and Relli’s lawyer to guide him on how to respond appropriately.
Before that could happen, Relli shouted, “You did this to yourself!” to Rocky.
“Do not talk to the defendant!”
Judge Mark Arnold shouted at him.
Tacopina brought up Instagram posts by Relli in an effort to challenge his previous statement that he held positive feelings towards Rocky before the alleged shooting. Relli had claimed that he faced severe backlash for coming forward, resulting in the collapse of his business and disappearance from social media platforms.
“Why are you showing my Instagram? I’m already getting death threats,” Relli said to Tacopina.
“Who is giving you death threats?” Tacopina asked.
“The whole world!” Relli responded.
“The whole world gave you death threats?” Tacopina asked.
Rihanna appeared for the first time at the trial of her longtime partner A$AP Rocky, on the day of its most important testimony – the description by a former friend of the moment Rocky allegedly fired a gun at him.
“Yeah, cause you’re saying I’m an extortionist and you’re putting my whole life out there,” Relli said.
While testifying a day earlier, he described the night in November of 2021 when he and Rocky, their relationship straining, had a confrontation and scuffled on a Hollywood street, and Rocky pointed a gun at him before walking away.
He testified that he was shouting at Rocky as he walked after him, then Rocky pulled the gun again and held it in the air.
“He turned around and then it was like BOOM!” he told the jury. “The whole thing was like a movie, he kind of like pointed down and he shot the first shot.”
He said he felt a burning on his hand where a bullet grazed it.
It wasn’t clear whether jurors noticed Rihanna was there when she made her first appearance on Wednesday, when she wore a long black dress with buttons that resembled an overcoat, she watched the proceedings calmly and periodically moved oversized, tortoiseshell glasses from atop her head to her eyes. She had a simple
Rocky, whose legal name is Rakim Athelston Mayers, could get up to 24 years in prison.
Relli testified that he didn’t see Rocky fire a second shot because he was hiding behind a mutual friend who was there with the rapper, who ran away after that, Relli testified.
He said, “I felt my hand hot,” and later added, “I was hit. Or I was grazed. I didn’t have a hole or nothing.”
Rocky’s lawyer says the shots he fired were not even from a real gun – they were blanks from a starter pistol that he carried as a prop. The lawyer said Relli knew this, and that was why he was so fearless walking after him.
“Oh it was a real gun,” Relli testified under prosecution questioning, saying he knew because of his scraped hand.
About an hour after the shooting, Relli returned to the scene and said he photographed and recovered two shell casings. Earlier, while responding to a report of a shooting, police did not find any.
He sent a text to Rocky that was shown in court saying “U try killing me.”
Rocky denied it in his reply.
“Bro wtf is u talkin bout why u tell ppl I shot at u.”
He sent Rocky photos of the shell casings and his grazed hand.
Rocky said he was making stuff up and speaking “all type of nonsense” and was trying to “extort” him.
Rocky and Rihanna, both 36, have two sons together: 2-year-old RZA Athelston Mayers and 1-year-old Riot Rose Mayers.
Rihanna appeared at his Los Angeles trial for a second day Thursday, sitting between his sister and mother as his former friend began cross-examination on his allegations that Rocky fired a gun at him in 2021.
The singing superstar was again escorted into the courtroom surreptitiously as she was in her first appearance at the trial Wednesday, before most of the audience was admitted.
The singer and the rapper, who are both fashion moguls, first became close when he provided a verse to her 2012 song “Cockiness (Love It)” and they performed it at the MTV Video Music Awards. They became a couple in 2020.
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