A$AP Rocky's defense hopes gun video will bolster 'fabricated shell casings' defense
Testimony continues Monday in Los Angeles, and Rihanna likely will be in the courtroom again. Rocky's lawyer should begin calling witnesses this week.
Rapper Rakim “A$AP Rocky” Mayers’s defense in his gun assault case depends largely on if jurors believe the alleged shooting victim is lying about spent 9 mm shell casings he said he found after Rocky fired two shots at him.
Terell “Relli” Ephron testified he found the casings after he returned to the scene about an hour after the Nov. 6, 2021, shooting in Hollywood, but Rocky’s lawyer said that’s impossible because Rocky fired a starter pistol as a warning and didn’t have a real gun with him.
Joe Tacopina’s defense narrative involves jurors believing Relli already had two discharged 9 mm shell casings when Rocky fired his starter pistol. Relli seemed to boost Tacopina’s chances on Friday when he flatly denied ever shooting a 9 mm before his confrontation with Rocky, only to be shown a video of him firing a gun at a range in October 2021.
“A few weeks before you testified you found shell casings at the scene — 9 mm shell casings — you fired 9 mm weapons at a shooting range, correct?” Tacopina asked.
“Definitely not,” Relli answered.
“Definitely not?” Tacopina asked.
“You heard me. Definitely not,” Relli answered.
Tacopina played a video of Relli shooting a gun at a range in October 2021.
“Is that you?” Tacopina asked.
“Yes,” Relli answered.
“Mr. Ephron, what you just told this jury,” Tacopina said before Relli interrupted.
“I don’t know what I’m doing 360, 365 days out of the year,” Relli said.
“What you just told this jury was that before Nov. 6, 2021, you didn’t fire any guns,” Tacopina said.
“I said ‘unless I went to a shooting range,’” Relli said.
The exchange occurred in the final hour of Tacopina’s two-day cross-examination of Relli, which was frequently interrupted by Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Mark S. Arnold telling Relli to answer the questions and stop adding commentary.
The problems began early in the exam on Thursday.
“I can tell people whatever I want. If I’m a millionaire, not a millionaire, like what? I’m not a millionaire. But what has that gonna do with this case?” Relli asked.
“Mr. Ephron, just answer the question. he asked you a yes or no question,” Judge Arnold said.
Moments later, Relli asked Tacopina why he was displaying photos from his Instagram.
“I’m already getting death threats, people threatening my daughter. Like, what's going on here?” Relli asked. “The whole world is threatening me … because of what you're saying.”
“Because I’m asking you about your Instagram?” Tacopina asked.
“Because you're saying I'm an extortionist in all of this, you put my whole life on — it’s getting really annoying,” Relli said before Judge Arnold interjected.
“No one is calling you an extortionist. You’re going to get through a lot faster it can just answer the questions. If somebody asks an improper question, I won’t allow it to go forward,” the judge said. “If you’re being asked a question that’s lawful in a courtroom, just answer it. Even if it makes you mad, even if you don’t see the point of it. Just answer the questions as truthfully as you can.”
Tacopina told jurors in his opening statement that Relli is lying about Rocky firing a real gun because he’s trying to extort money from him to fund a lavish lifestyle that he’s portrayed on social media. Arnold told him before cross that he can’t using the terms perjury or extortion again until closing argument.
Relli is suing Rocky over the shooting and seeking $30 million in damages, and he’s also suing Rocky and Tacopina for defamation for statements made after the shooting. He’s represented by Ben Chew and Camille Vasquez of Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton LLP, who represented actor Johnny Depp in his defamation trial with Amber Heard. Part of Rocky’s defense involves emphasizing Relli’s lawsuits to try to persuade jurors that he’s lying about Rocky having a real gun so he can secure large settlements.
The video of Relli shooting a gun weeks before the shooting is the best defense evidence so far to support the theory that Relli didn’t find the casings at the shooting scene like he says he did.
Relli also appeared confused when Deputy District Attorney Paul Przelomiec questioned him in direct-exam about a video that shows someone looking through the shooting scene about a half hour before he said he returned.
Przelomiec tried to discredit Relli’s claims that the man in the video was him, and Relli eventually said, “All I know, I went back and found the bullets. I don’t know where it is or what time or what, I know I came back within an hour. I’m confused on what this is right there.” Przelomiec reminded him of his testimony in Rocky’s preliminary hearing that the man in the video isn’t him.
Relli watched the video then testified he realized the man indeed was not him. Prosecutors have not shown video of anyone else walking through the shooting scene.
In direct-exam, Relli testified he found the shell casings after he returned to the shooting scene with his girlfriend about an hour after his confrontation with Rocky on Nov. 6, 2021.
Prosecutors have timestamped photos from his cell phone that show the casings on the ground; Relli testified he took the photos before he picked up the shell casings from the shooting scene. Seven police officers searched the area earlier after responding to a 911 call about the shooting, but they found no casings, bullets or property damage.
Relli texted the photos to Rocky at 11:58 p.m. the night of the shooting. He also texted him about the shooting, including telling him he’d tried to set him up and “take me from my daughter.” Rocky replied, “I tried to do what? I know u hate me. I hate u too.” He also told him, “Stop making shit up.”
Prosecutors still plan to introduce as evidence a 9 mm gun magazine police found at Rocky’s home when they raided it in April 2022.
Tacopina, meanwhile, plans to call as a witness Rocky’s friend Jamel “A$AP 12vvy” Phillips, whom he said will testify Rocky fired a prop gun to warn Relli as he attacked their friend Illijah “A$AP Illz” Ulanga. Rocky’s tour manager Lou Levin also will testify that the 9 mm magazine in Rocky’s home belonged to him, Tacopina said.
Rocky’s team hasn’t said if he’ll testify.
Attorneys fight over ‘escort’ photo
The trial has included frequent arguments between Tacopina and Deputy District Attorney John Lewin, and tensions exploded Friday morning after Tacopina tried to introduce as evidence a photo of Relli’s ex-girlfriend that Tacopina said shows she’s a prostitute. Tacopina didn’t call the woman a prostitute in front of the jury. Instead, he showed Relli a photo of her at the witness stand and asked if it was her.
Earlier, Lewin said, “Are you kidding me?” when Tacopina first showed him the photo, so Arnold asked to see it at the bench, then told Tacopina he could show it to Relli without displaying it to the jury.
Relli said he didn’t know if it was his ex, and Tacopina said, “You don’t know if that’s your girlfriend?”
“I don’t know,” Relli answered.
“You don’t think it would be a yes or no, that is my girlfriend or not?” Tacopina said. Relli said the woman was wearing make up.
“He says he doesn’t know. Move on to something else,” the judge told Tacopina.
After the jury left, Lewin said he’d “probably be reported to the bar” if he tried to pull “a stunt” like Tacopina did with the photo.
“There’s no court in the country where you could introduce a photo like that without going to the judge first,” Lewin said. Arnold said Tacopina wasn’t going to show it to the jury, and Tacopina said, “Exactly.”
“She’s not his family. She’s a prostitute,” Tacopina said. “Oh, she’s not? She’s not, John?” he asked Lewin. Tacopina said the photo was from an “escort website.”
“Stop protecting her!” Tacopina told Lewin.
“Stop! Stop!” Arnold exclaimed as the men yelled back and forth. The judge changed the subject to surveillance video evidence, but Tacopina returned to the photograph.
Tacopina said the photo goes to Relli’s credibility because he said he didn’t know if it was his ex.
“I have not shown that photograph to the jury. It actually served its purpose because he literally just told this jury he doesn’t know if that is or isn’t his girlfriend,” Tacopina said.
Judge Arnold said Relli was “being protective” of his ex.
“Absolutely he’s being protective,” Lewin said.
“Why does the picture matter?” Lewin asked. “He wants to make an argument about who she is and her relationship is because like his entire cross, none of it goes to the actual facts in this case.”
Lewin called Tacopina’s defense that Rocky carried a prop gun “garbage.”
“Oh, oh, oh,” Tacopina said.
“That’s what it is,” Lewin said.
“Let’s see what the jury says,” Tacopina said.
“The fact that you’re embracing this witness after the judge said what he said shows you who are. Clown!” Tacopina told Lewin.
“We’re off the record,” the judge said as he recessed court for the noon break. The men continued to argue as sheriff's deputies yelled at journalists and other members of the public to leave the courtroom.
Rocky’s significant other and the mother of his two young sons, singer Rihanna, was sitting in the front row of the courtroom while Lewin and Tacopina argued. She was in court Wednesday and Thursday, too, seated between Rocky’s mother and sister in the front row behind the defense table. She already was seated when the proceedings began on those days, but on Friday she walked into the courtroom through the public door about 11:10 a.m. during Tacopina’s cross of Relli.
She left the courthouse about 4:15 p.m. to a small group of photographers after mobs of paparazzi missed her on Wednesday and Thursday.
Someone asked how she was doing and she answered, “I’m good. Thank you.”
Relli deleted texts, but before shooting
Relli’s testimony that he didn’t know if the woman is his ex follows his denials that he’s one of the voices on two recordings Tacopina asked him about last week.
Tacopina played the beginning of one on Thursday, and it couldn’t be heard from the gallery.
He laughed when Relli told him “That’s not me. That’s fake,” and Judge Arnold told him, “No editorializing. He says it’s not him. Go on to something else.”
Relli asked to hear the conversation again, but Arnold said, “If it’s not you, it’s not you.”
On Friday, Tacopina brought out another recording he said was of Relli talking about what he’d do if Rocky gave him money over the shooting. Tacopina said Relli said he'd disappear to an island with Rocky's money and the district attorney wouldn't be able to find him.
Tacopina read the statement aloud, and Relli denied very saying it. Tacopina then played the recording only for him, and Relli said it was “fake.”
The jury never heard the recording, and, like the first recording, it was not entered as evidence. However, Tacopina still could get the recordings in as evidence through whoever else is on the recordings. He is expected to start calling witnesses later this week.
Another aspect of Rocky’s defense is that Relli was the aggressor when he met Rocky the night of the shooting, and Tacopina on Thursday questioned him about texts he sent Rocky that he deleted from his phone.
The messages said, “You got all these fake animosity towards me lol beat me up,” “I wish you would,” “Give me a reason.” They preceded Rocky calling him several times and also texting him, “Stop ducking my calls.” By the time Relli reported the shooting to police in New York two days later, he’d deleted the messages from his phone.
Tacopina asked why he deleted them, and Relli answered, “I don’t remember.”
Relli testified he doesn’t care if people saw the messages because, “That doesn’t mean bring a gun.” He sent the messages on Nov. 5, 2021, after he heard Rocky telling a mutual friend he was going to beat him up.
In re-direct on Friday, Relli told Przelomiec he deleted the messages shortly after he sent them and before Rocky texted him wanting to meet.
“I deleted them the same I day I sent them,” Relli said.
“So it wasn’t that you went through the text thread and selectively deleted things that you thought were going to make you look bad, you deleted the entire conversation?” Przelomiec asked.
“I didn’t like the way it looked on my phone, like what I was saying to him,” Relli answered.
He said he didn’t care about the messages, “I was just over the fact, over everything.”
“Your deleting those messages had nothing to do with he shot at you, correct?” Przelomiec asked.
“No,” Relli answered.
“Because you deleted them before he shot at you, correct?” Przelomiec asked.
“Yeah, the day before,” Relli answered.
Judge Arnold struck Relli’s answer because Przelomiec’s question was leading, and he told the jury to disregard it.
Tacopina questioned Relli about surveillance video of his confrontation with Rocky on Thursday afternoon. He told Tacopina he can’t tell whose hand moves first in the video because part of the confrontation isn’t visible. Tacopina said Rocky’s right hand comes up after Relli’s left hand is up, and Relli said, “He’s grabbing me. You see him literally grabbing my arm, bro. You see him tugging at me.”
“I’m so big, if I wanted to fight this man and I’m getting touched, don’t you think I’m going to protect myself” Relli said.
“Where are your hands right now?” Tacopina asked.
“We’re both grabbing each other at this point,” Relli answered.
Judge told Tacopina he can give his version in argument and “the jury will make the final determination.” Tacopina said Relli is pulling Rocky back, not Rocky pushing him forward.
“He’s clearly pushing me,” Relli said. He said they were grabbing each other at that point and “he initiated it.”
“So it’s our testimony that you are not trying to pull Rocky back?” Tacopina asked.
“I don’t recall,” Relli answered.
Tacopina read his testimony from Rocky’s preliminary hearing in which he said Rocky was pulled at his collar and “and I tried, like, pulling him back, you know?”
One of Rocky’s assault charges alleges he pointed a gun at Relli during the initial confrontation. The second assault charge is for the shooting that occurred about seven minutes later and a couple blocks away. Relli testified that Rocky said “I’ll kill you right ow” and pointed the gun at his head and stomach. Tacopina reminded him that he told the district attorney’s office a year after the shooting that he couldn’t remember what Rocky said.
In direct, Przelomiec went through the video of the shooting and asked Relli about Rocky’s and Illz’s movements to show the jury that, despite Rocky’s defense that he fired the shots after Relli attacked Illz, Relli grabbed Illz after the first shot, which aligns with Relli’s testimony that he used Illz as a human shield after Rocky fired.
Judge tells attorneys to only say ‘n-word’
The trial evidence includes several text messages that use the n-word racial epithet (with an a), and attorneys showed no qualms about reading the full word aloud for the jury.
Tacopina did it a couple times in his opening statement and again in his cross-examination of Relli. Before the jury was in the courtroom on Thursday, Tacopina, Lewin and Judge Arnold each said it as they discussed evidentiary issues regarding text messages.
Then when the jury was seated, Tacopina questioned Relli about a text message in which Relli told a friend, “I want to get that n****’s money,” and said the full word when asking Relli if he meant Rocky, and referenced Rocky sitting at the defense table.
Rocky spoke up moments later.
“Your Honor, can we refrain,” Rocky said as Judge Arnold cut him off and told him to talk to his lawyer Chad Seigel, who was seated next to him and is Tacopina’s law partner.
Later in the day, Judge Arnold told the attorneys, “If there’s an exhibit or any recording that has the n-word, I want you to say ‘n-word.’”
“I prefer that, too, Your Honor. I’m just reading literally,” Tacopina said.
“I know, but don’t anymore. Just say n-word. Any that applies to everybody,” the judge said.
On Friday, the judge interrupted Tacopina as he was reading another text message, “Ah, don’t! N-word.”
“I know!” Tacopina said.
“I’m just trying to make sure it doens’t get accidentally said,” Judge Arnold said. (This also occurred shortly after Tacopina said Relli was trying to “extort” Rocky in the text, so the judge may have been trying to remind Tacopina that he’s not supposed to say that until argument.)
I discussed the trial on LiveNOW from Fox on Saturday. We covered a lot in 18 minutes, so be sure to watch all the way through.
I also discussed the trial and Rihanna's courtroom presence on ABC News Live’s “Burden of Proof” with Phil Lopof.
Testimony resumes Monday at 10:30 a.m. PST in Los Angeles.
Relli is back on the stand for more re-direct, then Tacopina will question him again in re-cross. I’ll stream live on YouTube and share details in the chat from inside the courtroom.
You can find testimony videos on my YouTube channel where I recently surpassed 30,000 subscribers, and shorter videos on my TikTok page, where I recently surpassed 250,000 followers.
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