Rihanna appears at trial of A$AP Rocky and outshines key testimony on alleged shooting

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The man who alleges rapper A$AP Rocky fired a handgun at him in 2021 balked and bristled under cross-examination Wednesday and at one point shouted at the defendant, whose partner Rihanna watched in the audience.

The defense questioning of A$AP Relli, the trial's most important witness, got off to a stumbling start as he repeatedly demanded to know why defense attorney Joe Tacopina was asking certain questions, so much so that the judge called a recess so the prosecution and his own lawyer could explain to Relli how to answer properly in court.

Before that could happen, Relli shouted, “You did this to yourself!” to Rocky.

“Do not talk to the defendant!”

Judge Mark Arnold shouted at him.

“He's staring at me!” Relli said.

Rocky, whose legal name is Rakim Athelston Mayers, is on trial on two felony counts of assault with a semiautomatic firearm for allegedly firing on Relli, born Terell Ephron. The charges, with a conviction, could lead to up to 25 years in prison. Rocky sat at the defense table wearing a black suit and watching the witness intently. He did not audibly respond to Relli’s shout.

Rihanna, the singing superstar who is his longtime partner and the mother of their two toddler sons, caused a stir with her first appearance at his trial Wednesday, and was back sitting between Rocky's mother and sister on Thursday. She was again brought into the courtroom surreptitiously before most of the rest of the audience. She wore a white top and gold earrings, and calmly followed the proceedings.

Relli grew frustrated by the questions asked by Tacopina, Rocky's attorney. The defense showed screenshots of Relli's Instagram posts in an attempt to contradict his earlier testimony that he had nothing but love for Rocky before the shooting, but that he’d been so shunned for coming forward that his business was ruined and that he had no social media presence.

“Why are you showing my Instagram? I’m already getting death threats,” Relli said to Tacopina.

“Who is giving you death threats?” Tacopina asked.

“The whole world!” Relli responded.

“The whole world gave you death threats?” Tacopina asked.

“Yeah, cause you’re saying I’m an extortionist and you’re putting my whole life out there,” Relli said.

Relli is suing Tacopina for libel in civil court for his public statements, and suing Rocky over the incident. The defense is using the lawsuits to cast him as someone just seeking money from a false story.

The testimony had barely even addressed the incident itself when the trial broke for lunch.

While testifying a day earlier, Relli described the night in November of 2021 when he and Rocky, their relationship straining, had a confrontation and scuffled on a Hollywood street, and Rocky pointed a gun at him before walking away.

He testified that he was shouting at Rocky as he walked after him, then Rocky pulled the gun again and held it in the air.

“He turned around and then it was like BOOM!” he told the jury.

He said he felt like his hand was burning where a bullet grazed it.

“I felt my hand hot,” Relli continued, saying later, “I was hit. Or I was grazed. I didn’t have a hole or nothing.”

Rocky’s lawyer says the shots he fired were not even from a real gun — they were blanks from a starter pistol that he carried as a prop. The lawyer said Relli knew this, and that was why he was so fearless walking after him.

“Oh it was a real gun,” Relli testified.

About an hour after the shooting, Relli returned to the scene and said he photographed and recovered two shell casings. Earlier, while responding to a report of a shooting, police did not find any.

Rocky and Rihanna, both 36, have two sons together: 2-year-old RZA Athelston Mayers and 1-year-old Riot Rose Mayers. Rihanna revealed she was pregnant with the younger boy after headlining the Super Bowl halftime show in 2023 with a visible baby bump.

The singer and the rapper, who are both fashion moguls, first became close when he provided a verse to her 2012 song “Cockiness (Love It)” and they performed it at the MTV Video Music Awards. They became a couple in 2020.

Raised in Harlem, Rocky’s rap songs became a phenomenon on the streets of New York in 2011. He had his mainstream breakthrough when his first studio album went to No. 1 on the Billboard 200 in 2013.

He's set to have his biggest career year as a multi-media star. This Sunday, he's nominated for a Grammy Award at the ceremony at Crypto.com Arena just two miles from his trial.

He's also set to star opposite Denzel Washington in a film directed by Spike Lee, and to co-chair the Met Gala in May.