In a stretch of questioning crucial to the defense of A$AP Rocky, his lawyer on Friday challenged the account of his accuser, who said he suffered a hand injury when the hip-hop performer fired a gun at him in 2021.
Superstar singer Rihanna, Rocky’s partner and the mother of their two children, watched from the audience as the man who goes by A$AP Relli, a former friend of Rocky, underwent a second day of cross-examination at the Los Angeles trial that left him visibly frustrated and at times angry.
She slipped into court for a third day about 30 minutes into the testimony and sat next to Rocky’s mother after coming in through a public entrance. After the lunch break, she entered the courtroom together with Rocky for the first time. She left separately and climbed into an SUV outside the courthouse, saying “I’m good, thank you” when a reporter asked how she was holding up. She had been brought in secretly on her two previous visits.
Relli had testified under prosecution questioning that his hand felt hot when Rocky fired at him on a Hollywood street and his hand was grazed. A photo was shown of scrapes that had torn the skin on his knuckles.
He did not seek medical attention until two days later in New York.
“You waited to fly all the way across country before seeking medical attention?” defense attorney Joe Tacopina asked.
“I had my hand wrapped that night,” Relli said, then acknowledged he had.
He said that after the incident, “I didn’t trust LA. I didn’t trust nobody.”
Rocky’s attorneys contend that Relli only sought medical attention because the lawyer in a separate civil case where he’s seeking money from the rapper, told him he should.
Relli at first denied that he had been acting on his lawyer’s advice, but later conceded after hearing his previous testimony.
“You really don’t care about getting the police involved, your endgame was getting money from Rocky, correct?” Tacopina asked.
Relli answered, “No. I wanted protection. I wasn’t sure it wouldn’t happen again.”
Tacopina also challenged him about the short time he spent at the hospital.
“That’s one hour and 36 minutes for a gunshot, yeah?” the lawyer said.
“It was two days later,” Relli replied.
Anticipating the defense tactic, the prosecution told jurors during their opening statement that for the charges in the case — two counts of assault with a semiautomatic firearm — it doesn’t matter whether Relli was injured.
Guilty findings on both counts could lead to a maximum of 24 years in prison for Rocky.
That verdict could be a major turning point in the life of the rapper, who this weekend is nominated for his third Grammy Award at a ceremony at Crypto.com Arena just two miles from the trial.
Relli appeared angry and frustrated throughout the testimony. He repeatedly asked if questions were relevant, muttered to himself, and had to be instructed by the judge to answer “yes” or “no.” After listening to three different recordings of phone calls the defense said were him, he declared two of them were fake and said the third didn’t sound like him.
Tacopina asked if that one, in which Relli allegedly said he would walk away from the criminal case if he was paid millions, was also fake.
“I don’t know, you tell me!” Relli said. “You’re the one putting all this stuff in front of me.”
The calls all came from someone named Wally, who recorded them. Relli at first said he didn’t know him, then said he knew of him, then he said the person calls him all the time.
“He always hits me up asking me how I’m doing,” Relli said. “Now I know why.”
But he kept insisting under questioning that the calls played in the courtroom were fake.
The defense ended its cross-examination after scoring those points. Relli, whose testimony began Wednesday afternoon, will be back on the stand Monday for more questioning from the prosecution.
Rocky’s attorneys are arguing, in a revelation made just before the trial began, that the gun he fired was a starter pistol that carried only blanks that he had just as a prop for security. They allege Relli knew this.
Relli testified under prosecution questioning that he had not known Rocky to carry a gun.
When Tacopina returned to the question, Relli hedged.
“I don’t really chill with him every day, I don’t know,” he said. “From the time I chill with him, I don’t know him carrying guns.”
Tacopina continued, “Well one thing you know, is for sure he doesn’t carry a prop gun.”
“Who carries a prop gun?” Relli answered. “Who’s going to come to a situation and carry a prop gun?”
After the jury was dismissed for lunch, a vicious argument broke out between Tacopina and Deputy District Attorney John Lewin, who shouted that the defense’s entire case failed to address the actual incident, including “this prop gun garbage!”
“Oh?! Oh!?” Tacopina shouted back. “We’ll see what the jury says at the end!”
Tacopina then called Relli a perjurer and said the prosecutors were abetting him.
As it got even louder and more personal, the judge, who seemed disgusted, walked out.
He had previously instructed the men, who have butted heads often, only to talk to each other on the record. In this case they were, though the cameras had been turned off.
Rocky and Rihanna, both 36, have two sons together: 2-year-old RZA Athelston Mayers and 1-year-old Riot Rose Mayers.
Madukwe B. Nwabuisi is an accomplished journalist renown for his fearless reporting style and extensive expertise in the field. He is an investigative journalist, who has established himself as a kamikaze reporter.
