P News.com reports A$AP Rocky dove into the arms of Rihanna Tuesday as a clerk read the not guilty verdict at his trial on two felony counts of assault with a semiautomatic firearm. The Los Angeles courtroom, full of fans of the hip-hop performer and his singing superstar partner, exploded into screaming glee as Rocky leapt from the defense table into the gallery, where Rihanna sat between his mother and sister. They embraced and sobbed. After a three-week trial, the jury deliberated for just three hours to reach the verdict that spared Rocky, whose legal name is Rakim Mayers, a prison sentence that could have run more than two decades.
“Thank y’all for saving my life,” he told the jurors as they left. Amid the chaos, it took the clerk a while to read the second not guilty verdict, though it was very unlikely the jury would split on the counts. “Mr. Mayers, you’re excused,” Judge Mark Arnold said. On the eve of trial, Rocky turned down a prosecution offer of just six months in jail, along with probation and other conditions, if he would plead guilty to one count. Insisting on his innocence, Rocky decided to gamble that a jury would feel the same. It paid off. The jurors felt at least that there was reasonable doubt of his guilt.
Rihanna hugged the defense lawyers, as did Rocky. She attended the trial sporadically and brought the couple’s two sons — 2-year-old RZA Athelston Mayers and 1-year-old Riot Rose Mayers — for some of the closing arguments. The couple had to fight through a crush of photographers, reporters, YouTubers and fans to get into a waiting SUV outside the courthouse after the verdict. “This whole experience has been crazy for the past 4 years,’ Rocky said amid the mob scene. ”I’m thankful and it’s blessed to be here right now to be a free man talking to y’all.”
District Attorney Nathan Hochman said he respected the jury’s decision. “Our office remains committed to seeking accountability for those who break the law, no matter their status or influence,” Hochman said in a statement. “Fame does not place anyone above the law, and we will not waver in our pursuit of justice for victims and the community.”
The verdict came at the height of Rocky’s fame, if not the pinnacle of his music career. The three-time Grammy nominee, fashion mogul and actor has a banner year in the works, and can now look to it without the threat of prison hanging over him. He is scheduled to headline the Rolling Loud music festival in March; he is one of the celebrity co-chairs of fashion’s biggest night, the Met Gala, in May; and he stars with Denzel Washington in director Spike Lee’s film “Highest 2 Lowest,” set for release in early summer.
Prosecutors and their witnesses said that he was beefing with a former friend, A$AP Relli, with whom he had been in a crew who called themselves the A$AP Mob since high school. They said the two men met up in Hollywood on Nov. 6, 2021, and after a scuffle Rocky pulled the gun and fired twice at Relli, who said one of the shots grazed his knuckle but was not seriously hurt.
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