A Los Angeles jury has acquitted rapper A$AP Rocky on both counts of assault with a firearm. The non-Black jury delivered its verdict before a packed courtroom on Tuesday.
Rocky’s common-law wife, Rihanna, jumped up as Rocky’s supporters cheered in the courtroom.
“Thank you all for saving my life,” Rocky expressed to the jury as they exited the courtroom.
Rihanna accompanied the couple’s two sons, RZA and Riot Rose, to the trial last week. However, the prosecution objected to Rihanna’s attempt to influence the jury with the two adorable children.
“They brought in two adorable children yesterday for closing argument,” Deputy District Attorney John Lewin stated on Friday. “These children have never been here before. And you have to ask yourselves, why children that age would be present in a situation like this.”
Rocky was on trial for firing a gun at a former friend, A$AP Relli, in Hollywood in 2021. Relli sustained a minor grazed knuckle as a result of the incident.
Rocky’s attorney, Joe Tacopina, asserts that the gun found in his possession was a starter pistol that he carried for self-defense.
Rocky had previously declined a prosecutor’s plea deal that stipulated a 6-month jail sentence and 7 years of probation.
If convicted of assault with a firearm, he could have faced up to 24 years in prison.
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