Rapper A$AP Rocky arrived at a Los Angeles courthouse on Monday where a judge will determine if he will go to trial for allegedly shooting a gun at a friend outside of a hotel.
A$AP Rocky, real name Rakim Mayers, is facing up to eight years in jail if convicted on two felony counts of assault with a semi-automatic firearm.
He arrived at court Monday wearing a black suit, matching black face mask, black tie with white dots and a floral brooch.
The 35-year-old rap star and father of two children with Rihanna has pleaded not guilty to charges alleging he fired a gun at a former friend and collaborator.
Prosecutors allege that on November 6, 2021, Mayers pointed a gun at Terell Ephron, once known as A$AP Relli, then in a confrontation shot at and left Ephron with minor injuries.
A$AP Rocky arrived to court Monday wearing a black suit, matching black face mask, black tie with white dots and a floral brooch
A judge will determine if there is enough evidence to move forward with a trial against the rapper in a November 2021 shooting
At an earlier hearing, Ephron testified that Mayers held the gun to his stomach and said ‘I’ll kill you right now,’ before firing off rounds and leaving the room.
Ephron said that him and the F*****g Problems rapper were teenage friends and members of the A$AP collective, a group of New York high school students who sought to make music and pursue other art forms.
He said their friendship continued as Mayers fame grew but began to falter when he started backing out of business ventures.
Prosecutors played surveillance video that appears to show Mayers brandishing a gun and possibly firing it, which his lawyers denied that he did.
The father of Rihanna’s two children, was first detained in April last year as he returned to LAX airport from Barbados where he had been on vacation with his then-pregnant girlfriend.
He was later released on $550,000 bail. Officers were seen outside of his LA home, smashing into the gate with a battering ram, before apparently raiding the property. Detectives seized multiple boxes of evidence from the house.
Four months after his arrest, the charges were brought up to felony status, rather than misdemeanor which would have mean only one year of jail time for each count.
In this preliminary hearing, a judge will determine if there is enough evidence to move forward with a trial.
The rapper is being represented by the same lawyer who is representing former president Donald Trump in his New York criminal case, Joe Tacopina.
