Rapper A$AP Rocky must stand trial on charges that he fired a gun at a former friend, a judge ruled on Monday.
After listening to a day and a half of testimony, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge M.L. Villar found at a preliminary hearing that there is sufficient evidence for the rapper to go on trial on two felony counts of assault with a semiautomatic firearm for allegedly firing on former friend and collaborator Terell Ephron outside a Hollywood hotel in 2021.
Rocky, 35, whose real name is Rakim Athelaston Mayers, and who is the father of two children with Rihanna, has pleaded not guilty. His legal team argued to no avail that the evidence was vague, inconclusive, and poorly gathered.
Villar stressed that because preliminary hearings have a lower standard of evidence than a trial, “the totality of the video and testimony” was sufficient probable cause for the rapper to go to trial, according to The Associated Press.
Ephron testified that he and Rocky, friends since childhood, were part of the same band of musicians and artists in high school, but that they fell out with each other, leading to the events of Nov. 6, 2021, when Ephron said Rocky pulled a gun on him for the first time. Ephron also testified that Rocky fired shots that grazed his knuckles.
Rocky was arrested at Los Angeles International Airport in April and charged in August. His first two studio albums in 2013 and 2015 —Long. Live. A$AP and At. Long. Last. A$AP—both went to No. 1 on the Billboard 200, but in recent years he hasn’t released much new music. Rihanna gave birth to their second son, Riot, in August after giving birth to RZA in May 2022.
