On Wednesday, Rihanna made her first appearance at the shooting trial of rapper A$AP Rocky — her partner with whom she shares two children — keeping a low profile out of view of the courtroom’s cameras, sitting between A$AP Rocky's sister and mother.
According to The Associated Press, Rihanna was escorted into the courtroom by security to avoid the crowd and sat in A$AP Rocky's section before the jurors and media entered. Wearing a long black dress, she moved her oversized sunglasses from her head to her eyes as the proceedings unfolded.
A$AP Rocky, whose real name is Rakim Mayers, is facing two counts of felony assault with a semiautomatic firearm against his former friend, A$AP Relli, who is alleging that the rapper shot a gun at him in an altercation. A$AP Rocky was arrested in 2022 at Los Angeles International Airport, returning from Barbados, where he was vacationing with Rihanna in her native country. This was just a couple of weeks before the birth of the couple's first son, RZA.
A$AP Rocky was released on bail the same day for $550,000, The Los Angeles Times reported
During the trial, A$AP Relli, or Terell Ephron, testified that he met up with A$AP Rocky in Nov. 2021 to fix their broken friendship. The rappers were both in the rap collective A$AP Mob before a disagreement over A$AP Rocky's alleged failure to support another group member, who had died from an overdose, exasperated the divide.
Ephron said the pair drifted apart as A$AP Rocky's fame catapulted and other members struggled to succeed. According to Ephron, a meeting between the former friends to squash their beef spiraled into a heated confrontation which resulted in the alleged shooting that grazed Ephron's hand near the W Hotel in Los Angeles.
A$AP Rocky pled not guilty to the charges and the defense is claiming the gun was a prop that cannot shoot real bullets. If convicted, he could be sentenced to up to 20 years in prison.
