As the trial of A$AP Rocky continues to wind down, the prosecution team used the rapper’s family’s appearance in court at the Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center in Los Angeles on Feb. 13 to try to gain sympathy from the jury.
According to People Magazine, District Attorney John Lewin requested on Feb. 14 during his closing argument that the jury refrain from allowing themselves to be swayed by the appearances of his partner, Rihanna, and their young children, two-year-old RZA and 18-month-old Riot in court the previous day.
“This is not something you’re allowed to consider. We are all responsible for what we do. I want to make sure that no matter how famous his [partner] is, no matter how cute his kids are, no matter how much they giggle during closing arguments… he needs to be treated like any other person. Because in the end that’s what he’s entitled to,” Lewin told the jury.
According to reports, after Lewin made his statement, both Rihanna and A$AP Rocky shifted nervously in their seats and appeared upset.
A$AP Rocky stands accused of firing a semi-automatic handgun at his former friend and associate, A$AP Relli, in November 2021. The pair were formerly part of a rap crew, A$AP Mob.
After a brief recess, the judge addressed Lewin’s comments to the jury, instructing the court that he would accept no more mentions of either Rihanna or the children.
“From here on out, there should be no mention of Rihanna being in the courtroom or the babies being in the courtroom,” Judge Mark Arnold cautioned.
He continued, “The manner in which you did it -– I don’t think it was improper. But you cannot mention again Rihanna being in the courtroom, or the kids being in the courtroom.”
A$AP Rocky could have taken a plea deal but instead opted to enter a not-guilty plea and faces up to 24 years in prison if found guilty.
His lawyer, Joe Tacopina, described the gun his client was carrying as a “prop gun” to ward off would-be threats in his opening statements and alleged that A$AP Relli is concocting a false narrative so he can get paid.
“For Relli, it was never about justice… it’s about a man seeking a profit from a fabricated narrative. Rocky has nothing to hide here,” Tacopina told the jury.
According to The Guardian, Tacopina’s line of argument during the trial, like his closing argument, has largely centered on proving that A$AP Relli is an unreliable witness.
“Their witness lied to them, lied to police and deleted the messages,” Tacopina told the court. “He destroyed evidence.”
He produced evidence, a transcript of a moment during Relli’s testimony when Tacopina confronted Reilly about the text messages between himself and Rocky.
“At first he said: ‘I don’t recall.’ Then I showed him the messages,” Tacopina said. “What did he say next? His go-to line: ‘It’s fake! It’s fake!’ Anything that crushed him was fake. That was in front of you. Imagine what he’s like in the street.”
Lewin, meanwhile, has made his argument as simple as possible despite neither side producing a gun, which is at the center of the entire court case.
His argument, quite simply, is that once the jury decides the gun isn’t a prop gun, the case is over at that point. “If it is a prop gun, there is no self-defense.”
According to Lewin, the jurors could spend minimal time deliberating Rocky’s guilt or innocence; he told them it could even be “a five-minute verdict.”
Lewin added, “Once you decide it’s not a prop gun – and it’s not a prop gun, the case is over.”
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