Jury choice is scheduled to start Tuesday in a trial in opposition to rapper A$AP Rocky, who’s charged with firing a gun at a former buddy and will get a decades-long jail sentence if convicted.
The 36-year-old has pleaded not responsible to 2 felony counts of assault with a semi-automatic firearm, and his lawyer has stated he dedicated no crime.
The Grammy-nominated hip-hop star, style mogul and actor is the longtime companion of Rihanna, and the couple have two toddler sons collectively. It is not totally clear whether or not Rihanna will seem in court docket to help him, however his lawyer has steered it is unlikely.
Rocky has been named one of many celeb chairs of the Met Gala in Could, and has a significant position in a Spike Lee-directed movie with Denzel Washington to be launched quickly after.
However his life might be upended with a conviction, which may result in a sentence of as much as 24 years if jurors discover him responsible of taking pictures at his former buddy in Hollywood in 2021.
Superior Courtroom Decide Mark Arnold stated he intends to seat a jury shortly, and is conserving strict limits on how lengthy attorneys can query potential jurors.
“I’ll let the jurors know that no matter who a defendant is, whether or not they’re the richest individual on the earth or the poorest individual, everyone is to be handled the identical,” Arnold stated at a pretrial listening to.
Opening statements may come Wednesday. Arnold is permitting media cameras in court docket for all the trial after a jury is chosen.
Arrested in 2023
Rocky was arrested at Los Angeles Worldwide Airport in April 2023 and charged that August. A decide dominated after a preliminary listening to that Rocky ought to stand trial for allegedly firing a gun at Terell Ephron, a childhood buddy. Earlier in that listening to, Ephron testified he and Rocky had belonged to the identical collective of musicians and artists at their New York highschool.
Ephron stated their relationship had began to go bitter and resulted within the standoff in Hollywood on Nov. 6, 2021, when he stated Rocky first pulled a gun on him, and in a later confrontation fired pictures that grazed Ephron’s knuckles.
Rocky’s lawyer Joe Tacopina established whereas questioning a police detective that seven officers who searched a sidewalk and avenue about 20 minutes after the pictures have been allegedly fired discovered no proof of the taking pictures, and {that a} pair of nine-millimetre shell casings in police possession have been recovered by Ephron, who returned to the scene about an hour after the standoff.
Prosecutors confirmed a separate video from close to the scene the place no persons are initially seen, however what sounded like two gunshots might be heard. A person is subsequently seen working round a nook, earlier than slowing to a stroll. The person’s identification was not instantly clear within the video.
In California courts, preliminary hearings like these are a kind of miniature model of a trial, with solely a decide deciding whether or not enough proof exists to maneuver ahead. The usual of proof for doing so is much decrease than what’s required for felony guilt.
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