Rihanna's Beau, rapper A $ AP Rocky, was not guilty of all points on Tuesday by jury members in his criminal criminal trial in the center of Los Angeles.
The triple Grammy-nominated, 36, was confronted with a maximum of 24 years in prison if he was convicted in the case, accused of a few counts of a crime shooting.
Jury members in Los Angeles considered only about three hours before they released him from two crime counts of abuse with a semi -automatic firearm.
The 36-year-old hip-hop star, fashion-mogul and fast-growing actor-Wiens's legal name Rakim Mayers is-rishered more than 24 years in prison if he had been convicted.
On the eve of the trial, he refused a prosecution offer of just six months in prison, together with probationary period and other conditions, if he would argue guilty of one count.
Rihanna's Beau, rapper A $ AP Rocky, was not guilty of all points on Tuesday by jury members in his criminal criminal trial in the center of Los Angeles
Rihanna arrives at the court for the trial against an $ AP Rocky, Tuesday, February 18, 2025, in Los Angeles
On his innocence, and with two young toddler sons at home with his old partner Rihanna, the 36-year-old Rocky decided to gamble that a jury would feel the same. It has paid off. At least the jury members felt that there were reasonable doubts about his debt.
Rihanna sporadically attended the trial and brought the two sons of the couple-the 2-year-old RZA Athelston Mayers and 1-year-old Riot Rose Mayers-for some of the final arguments.
The verdict came at the height of Rocky's fame, if not the pinnacle of his music career. The triple Grammy nominated has a banner year in the making and can now look at it without the threat of the prison hanging above him. It is planned to head the Rolling Loud Music Festival in March; He is one of the famous co-presidents of the greatest night of fashion, with Gala, in May; And he plays the leading role with Denzel Washington in director Spike Lee's film 'Highest 2 Lowest', scheduled for release in the early summer.
Public prosecutors and their witnesses said that with a former friend, a $ AP Relli, he was running, with whom he had been in a crew who called himself the A $ AP -Moderne since high school. They said the two men met in Hollywood on November 6, 2021, and after a scuffle Rocky pulled the gun and shot twice on Relli, who said that one of the shots with his knuckle was grazing but was not seriously injured.
Rocky's lawyer Joe Tacopina said in his final argument that Relli is “an angry pathological liar” who “has committed meineed time and again and again”.
Rocky's lawyers and witnesses they mentioned said Rocky had shot a prop gun that only fired empty spots that he had worn for security since he had taken it from a video clip months earlier. They said he had fired it as a warning because Relli attacked another member of their crew.
The jury members were told that despite three years ago since the incident, no one called the fake gun to the authorities until the day the jury started selection during the trial.
Rihanna arrives at the court for the trial against an $ AP Rocky, Tuesday, February 18, 2025, in Los Angeles
Lawyer Joe Tacopina, center, speaks against his customer A $ AP Rocky, sitting, in Los Angeles, Friday, February 14, 2025 during the trial
They also received the instruction that if they discovered that Rocky reasonably believed that he or one of the two friends with him was in threatening danger of injury and that he used reasonable power, they could not find the suspect guilty.
It was not immediately clear whether they reached the verdict because they believed that he actually wore a prop pistol or that he was acting in self-defense. They didn't have to agree about their reasoning or explaining it outside the jury room. They just had to come to the same conclusion.
Rocky chose not to testify in his own defense.
In his final argument, deputy public prosecutor John Lewin insisted on not being influenced by the celebrity or family aspects of the case, and suggested that Rihanna finally made the children an attempt to manipulate the jury.
“You can't consider how this can influence Rihanna and his children,” said the public prosecutor. “We are all responsible for our own actions in the world.”
