Jury hears recordings of A$AP Rocky's alleged victim describing gun assault
A surprise defense witness verified the authenticity of recordings that Terell "Relli" Ephron testified were fake. But jurors heard more from the recordings in cross-exam.
Weeks after rapper Rakim “A$AP Rocky” Mayers was arrested at the Los Angeles International Airport, the man he’s accused of shooting discussed his plans with a mutual friend.
Terell “Relli” Ephron told Wally Sajimi in a May 2022 phone call he was suing Rocky and “that was my game plan regardless; I don’t give a f*** about no police.”
Relli told Sajimi, “if you ask for a bag without a lawyer, it’s extortion” and “you gotta do everything accordingly or it’s going to catch up with you.”
In another call three months later, Relli told Sajimi about articles he wanted promoted on social media, and he said he’d give him money “when I get something.” He also said he was due $30 million, and if he was to “walk away when I get my cash, the case is way weaker” because he’d be relaxing on an island while the prosecutor tries to find him.
Jurors in Rocky’s gun assault trial in Los Angeles heard a small part of the recordings during Relli’s cross-examination last week, but Relli told Rocky’s lawyer Joe Tacopina they were fake, and they weren’t entered as evidence.
That changed after Sajimi, a website developer and consultant, flew from Paris to Los Angeles over the weekend for a surprise witness stand appearance on Monday to verify their authenticity. His testimony was meant to help Tacopina cast Relli as a dishonest, greedy accuser whose testimony that Rocky shot him cannot be trusted.
But in the recordings, Relli didn’t limit his discussions with Sajimi to his lawsuit and request for $30 million.
He also discussed what happened when prosecutors say Rocky twice assaulted Relli with a firearm during a confrontation in Hollywood on Nov. 6, 2021, that included Rocky firing two shots, one of which grazed Relli’s left knuckles. Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney John Lewin played longer portions of the discussions in a cross-examination that focused on the central issue before the jury: Did Rocky shoot Relli?
“Did Relli ever tell you that the shooting did not happen?” Lewin asked.
“No,” Sajimi answered.
“Did he ever tell you at any point in time, ‘You know what? Yeah, I’m trying to get his money, but I made the whole thing up,’” Lewin asked.
“No,” Sajimi answered.
“In fact, isn’t it true that what he was telling you was that that man shot him, and Relli wanted to make sure he got his for what happened?” Lewin asked, pointing to Rocky at the defense table.
“That’s what Relli said,” Sajimi answered.
Lewin also asked Sajimi about Rocky’s defense that he carried a prop gun instead of a real gun and fired it twice only as a warning because Relli was attacking their friend Illijah “Illz” Ulanga. Tacopina told jurors in his opening statement that Relli is lying when he says he found two shell casings at the shooting scene after seven police officers didn’t find anything.
Sajimi secretly recorded both his phone calls with Relli, then gave the recordings to Rocky.
“If he would have told you, ‘Hey, I shot him with a prop gun,’ you would sure as heck remember that, wouldn’t you?” Lewin asked.
“Not necessarily,” Sajimi answered. Sajimi later said Rocky didn’t tell him that.
“So you would not remember if A$AP Rocky said, ‘Hey, everything Relli said is not true. I shot him with a prop gun,’?” Lewin asked.
“I don’t recall specifics,” Sajimi answered.
“What, exactly, did he tell you happened?” Lewin asked.
“I don’t recall specifics,” Sajimi answered.
Sajimi told Lewin he can’t recall if he asked Rocky what happened. He also initially testified that he didn’t learn of the shooting until Relli told him about it, five months after it happened.
“So you are having conversations with Relli, which you’re taping and then immediately calling the defendant to report what happened, and you’re telling me you’ve never asked the man, ‘Hey, did you cap two rounds at him?’” Lewin asked.
“I said I don’t recall,” Sajimi answered.
“Well, is that something you think you’d remember?” Lewin asked.
“It was three years ago. I said I don’t recall,” Sajimi answered.
Lewin also asked Sajimi if he asked Relli, “Hey Relli, how come you’re getting money from him if the shooting never happened?”
“I never asked that,” Sajimi answered.
“Don’t you think that’d be a legitimate question to ask him?” Lewin asked.
“No, I was just hearing his side of the story,” Sajimi answered.
Tacopina’s direct-examination of Sajimi was about 20 minutes, but Lewin cross-examined him for about two hours. The jurors agreed to stay until after 5:30 pm. instead of the regular 4 p.m. to accommodate Sajimi’s flight back to France.
Lewin questioned Sajimi about several portions of Relli’s conversation with Sajimi after playing them aloud for jurors, each who had a transcript. In the first, Sajimi told Relli he’s “not trying to pick sides and shit.”
Sajimi told Lewin he was “trying to mediate the situation.”
“How can you mediate a situation that you know nothing about and never heard of?” Lewin asked.
Sajimi said he “might have received a text,” then said he’s unsure when he learned of the shooting.
Lewin played a clip in which Relli said Rocky was “100 percent crazy and wrong” and got their friends Illz and Jamel “A$AP 12vvy” Phillips involved.
“You gotta understand: Rocky has been on his high horse for a very long time. You feel me?” Relli told Sajimi.
Sajimi asked “why take it to, you know, the guys,” referring to police, and Relli said Rocky is a “multimillionaire” who “blinged at me” “and everybody turned on me.”
“Rocky had everybody turn on me,” Relli told Sajimi.
Relli said he was “not having nobody shoot at me and I’m taking it on the chin.” He also said he “had to use Illz as a shield or I’d be dead.”
Relli also said Rocky “tries to chest bump me, and then pulls out a gun for self defense.”
“He’s a pussy boy,” Relli said. Relli also said if Rocky was a true gangster, “This would be handled in the streets,” but he’s A$AP Rocky and he has “three or four bodyguards with him 24/7.”
“This is the case of Dior,” Relli said, referring to Rocky’s partnership with the French luxury goods company.
Lewin pointed out that Sajimi, not Relli, raised the idea of getting money from Rocky. when he told Relli he could “go get paper.”
Sajimi said he was “giving him options to mediate the situation,” and Lewin clarified that one option he suggested was money.
“Would you agree it looks like you’re the person who’s suggesting he got get some money? Get some paper? Correct?” Lewin asked.
“I was giving him an option,” Sajimi asked.
“He’s telling you, ‘He tried to kill me,’ and you’re telling him, ‘Hey, get some money.’ Correct? As an option,” Lewin asked.
Sajimi testified he wasn’t “directly” telling Rocky to get some money.
Lewin also played a clip for the jury in which Relli said his lawyers tld some of the pushback against him is because of his skin color.
“People expect Black people to be crash-test dummies. You feel what I’m saying? ‘Oh, you a hood n****. You supposed to be like this.’ Like, what?” Relli said.
Sajimi told Relli he wanted them to resolve it “peacefully,” and Relli said he tried but Rocky “didn’t even reach out to me.
“He’s still thinking that this shit is a joke. He’s going to find out when he goes to the preliminary hearing,” Relli said.
Relli also said Rocky tried to murder him, and that he’s jeopardizing his career and everyone around him.
“It’s not like we had an argument and then a fight broke out and a gun came out. He purposely knew what he was doing” Relli said. “When you purposely know what you’re doing, that’s a whole different ball game.”
But, Relli said, “I still feel sympathetic for this man because I know what he’s about to endure. But he told me to fuck off, go to the police. He told me this type of shit.”
Tacopina, who has repeatedly guaranteed reporters Rocky will be acquitted, kept his re-direct short: 6 minutes.
“You were just asked a million questions about this mediation. Were you performing a formal mediation?” Tacopina asked.
“No,” Sajimi answered.
Tacopina referenced Relli’s comment to Sajimi that he’s a millionaire.
“Are you aware that he testified in this courtroom that what he told you is not true there?” Tacopina asked.
Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Mark S. Arnold sustained a relevancy objection from Lewin.
Tacopina also asked Sajimi about Relli saying if he didn’t have a lawyer “it’s called extortion.”
“You remember that?” Tacopina asked.
“Yes,” Sajimi answered.
“I’m getting 30 Ms. The D.A. won’t find me. I’ll be relaxing on an island. Were those words fake? Or was that Mr. Ephron?” Tacopina asked.
“You didn’t put those words in his mouth?” Tacopina asked.
No,” Sajimi answered.
“Why’d you come here again, sir?” Tacopina asked.
“To verify lies that were told on my name,” Sajimi answered.
“By?” Tacopina asked.
“Because audio was played to the victim and he was saying they were fake. So I wanted to confirm that they were real,” Sajimi answered.
“Thank you,” Tacopina said.
In re-cross, Lewin asked Sajimi if any of Tacopina’s questions “change what happened on the night of Nov. 6.”
“The answer is obviously ‘no,’” Judge Arnold said. He called the question “irrelevant.”
Lewin asked his final question.
“As you sit here on that witness stand answering questions, isn’t it true that with every question you’ve been asked, you’ve been thinking, ‘How is my answer going to impact whether that man is convicted?’ Yes or no?” Lewin asked.
“No,” Sajimi answered.
Relli finishes testifying
Prosecutors have not yet rested their case (they likely will on Thursday), but Sajimi testified as a defense witness out of order because of his schedule. His testimony followed testimony from Relli, who was on the stand for five days.
He gave Tacopina something to work with when he denied shooting a 9 mm gun before the confrontation with Rocky, only for Tacopina to show a video of him firing a gun at a firing range in October 2021.
Relli said he wasn’t sure where the firing range was but knew it wasn’t in Los Angeles. Prosecutors wanted to stipulate with Tacopina that the range wasn’t in Los Angeles, but Relli contacted them on Sunday and told them he learned from looking through his Instagram archives that the firing range was in fact in Los Angeles.
Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney Paul Przelomiec asked Relli about his correction on Monday, as did Tacopina.
Detectives Frank Flores and Kirk Anderson, who interviewed Relli, testified on Tuesday.
There was no trial on Wednesday. Testimony resumes Thursday at 10:30 a.m. PST. I’ll stream live on my YouTube channel.
Previous articles:
Thank you for supporting my independent legal affairs journalism. Your paid subscriptions make my work possible. If you’re not already a paid subscriber, please consider purchasing a subscription through Substack. You also can support me through Venmo (MeghannCuniff), CashApp ($MeghannCuniff) and Zelle (meghanncuniff@gmail.com). Thank you!