On the first day of A$AP Rocky’s trial, jurors saw surveillance videos that a prosecutor argued make it clear the rapper fired a gun in 2021 at his former friend, who the defense cast as jealous, money-seeking rival who fabricated large parts of the story.<\/p>\n
Deputy District Attorney Paul Przelomiec gave a sober, straightforward presentation during opening statements Friday in the trial of the hip-hop star, fashion maven and actor. It relied almost entirely on the video evidence and audio from a 911 call.<\/p>\n
“What will become almost instantly clear is that this is not a complicated case,” Przelomiec said.<\/p>\n
Rocky’s attorney Joe Tacopina said in the defense opening statement that the video evidence is meaningless without the testimony of the accuser \u2014 Terell Ephron, who goes by A$AP Relli. Tacopina argued Relli is driven by \u201cjealousy, lies and greed.\u201d<\/p>\n
“This case rises or falls on his credibility,” Tacopina said, repeatedly calling Relli, \u201ca perjurer and a criminal,\u201d spurring prosecution objections. \u201cThe videos you saw, without his testimony, prove absolutely nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n
The defense said that the gun was a starter pistol that shot only blanks \u2014 which they argued Relli knew \u2014 and Rocky carried only as a prop for protection.<\/p>\n
The first video shown by the prosecution, captured from nearby but partly blocked, showed a physical struggle between two men \u2014 with two others intervening \u2014 outside a parking garage in Hollywood on the night of Nov. 6, 2021. One of them, wearing a black hoodie, pulls out a gun and points it, but does not fire it.<\/p>\n
Przelomiec showed two more videos of the moment from other cameras, minutes after the first confrontation, when he said shots were fired about a block away. One shows a scuffle between four men in a tiny image in the corner of the frame. The other, shot at the same time, captures two gunshot sounds.<\/p>\n
He also played a 911 call from minutes later.<\/p>\n
The four men were all old friends, Przelomiec told the jurors. They had all been members of the A$AP Collective, a crew of creators established at a high school in New York around 2006.<\/p>\n
Rocky has pleaded not guilty to two felony counts of assault with a semiautomatic firearm, charges that could lead to up to 24 years in prison.<\/p>\n
Q: What are the charges against A$AP Rocky?<\/p>\n
A: He is accused of two felony counts of assault with a semiautomatic firearm.<\/p>\n
Q: What is the defense’s theory of the case?<\/p>\n
A: The defense argues that the gun was a starter pistol that shot only blanks, and Rocky carried it only as a prop for protection.<\/p>\n
Q: What is the prosecution’s case?<\/p>\n
A: The prosecution relies on video evidence and audio from a 911 call, arguing that Rocky fired a gun at his former friend.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A$AP Rocky’s Lawyers Cast Man He’s Accused of Shooting as Jealous, Money-Seeking Rival Opening Statements in Trial On the first day of A$AP Rocky’s trial, jurors saw surveillance videos that a prosecutor argued make it clear the rapper fired a gun in 2021 at his former friend, who the defense cast as jealous, money-seeking rival […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":5928,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rank_math_lock_modified_date":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-5927","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/ktla.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2025\/01\/67942ad80c42f9.32005259.jpeg?w=900&w=899&resize=899,600&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/los-angeles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5927"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/los-angeles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/los-angeles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/los-angeles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/los-angeles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5927"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/los-angeles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5927\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5929,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/los-angeles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5927\/revisions\/5929"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/los-angeles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5928"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/los-angeles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5927"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/los-angeles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5927"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/los-angeles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5927"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}