Photo Credit: A$AP Rocky by Chris Brown for The Come Up Show
A$AP Rocky turns down a plea deal in the A$AP Relli firearm assault case and will continue to trial.
Rapper A$AP Rocky has turned down a plea deal in the A$AP Relli firearm assault case and will continue to trial following jury selection. Rolling Stone’s Nancy Dillon confirmed the news from the Los Angeles courtroom as the jury selection for the case began on Tuesday.
Dillon revealed Rocky was offered three years’ probation, a seven-year suspended prison sentence, and 180 days in county jail if he would plead guilty to Count 1 (assault with a semiautomatic firearm). But Rocky told the judge, “I respectfully decline, thank you.”
Joe Tacopina, Rocky’s attorney, revealed they have two witnesses ready to testify that the gun seen on the security video was a prop gun Rocky carried for “security reasons.”
“From our side, we have no interest in a settlement,” Tacopina told Judge Mark S. Arnold at a pre-trial hearing last Wednesday, January 16. “My client has indicated he’s not willing to take anything. But obviously, I will listen to anything, any offer. And I have an obligation and a duty to relay it to my client, which I will do.”
Tacopina said Rocky is feeling “confident” that he will be acquitted, and is prepared to testify if necessary. But his life could be drastically upended if he’s convicted of firing a gun at Terell Ephron, a former childhood friend who testified their relationship had gone south. Things came to a head on November 6, 2021, when Ephron claimed that “bullets grazed his knuckles.” Rocky is facing two felony counts of assault with a semiautomatic firearm.
Rocky was named a celebrity chair of the Met Gala in May, and also has a major role in a Spike Lee film with Denzel Washington. But it remains to be seen if these projects will be affected by his forthcoming trial.
