In closing, prosecutor slams A$AP Rocky's 'prop gun' defense as 'absolutely absurd'

LOS ANGELES (CN) — Insults flew back and forth on Thursday during the first day of closing statements in the trial of hip-hop artist Rakim Mayers, better known as A$AP Rocky, who stands accused of brandishing and firing a semiautomatic handgun at an old friend of his on the streets of Hollywood in 2021.

The defense attorney called the prosecutor’s key witness, the man who Mayers is said to have fired the gun at, a “compulsive liar and perjurer.” The prosecutor said the defense’s two key witnesses had been “coached” and that their story — that Mayers’ gun was a prop and the shots fired were blanks — was fabricated and “absolutely absurd.”

“This case boils down to just one question,” Deputy District Attorney Paul Przelomiec said in his closing remarks. “And that is did Mr. Mayers use a real gun or a fake gun?”

Prosecutors say that Mayers went to meet Terell Ephron — whom he met in high school and who was part of the A$AP rap collective — after the two had a falling out. Their first interaction, outside a parking garage, devolved into a shoving match, and Mayers pulled out a gun. Cooler heads prevailed, however momentarily. Mayers and two other A$AP members walked away, but Ephron, irate at having a gun pulled on him, followed, shouting insults at his three former friends. After a few blocks, according to the prosecution, Mayers had enough, fired two shots at Ephron, and then fled the scene.

Mayers’ defense team has argued that Mayers was carrying a prop gun that night, which he had gotten while filming a music video. He carried it, they say, to deter people from attacking him. But Ephron, they say, knew the gun was fake, which is why he wasn’t afraid to follow Mayers.

The defense team called two key witnesses to bolster the “prop gun” defense: Jamel Phillips, aka A$AP Twelvyy, who was with Mayers that night during the violent altercation; and Louis Levin, or A$AP Lou, Mayers’ former assistant-turned-touring manager. Both testified, under oath, that Mayers routinely carried a prop gun. Phillips told the court that Ephron knew the gun was fake. Levin said Mayers gave him back the prop gun after the shooting and that Levin passed it back to the music video director, who then proceeded to lose the gun.

Unlike Ephron, Phillips and Levin appeared polite, focused, and on-message. Przelomiec, during his closing argument, tried to use that to discredit them, calling their answers “pre-programmed” and “robotic.”

“I don’t have to tell you he was coached into certain answers,” Przelomiec said of Phillips, “because you saw it with your own eyes. You heard it.”

Ultimately, he said, the prop gun story made no sense. Why fire a fake gun to ward off Ephron if Ephron knew it was a fake? “The deterrent effect goes completely out the window,” the prosecutor said.

Little physical evidence was found at the scene of the shooting. Instead, prosecutors were forced to construct their case from fragments: a short snippet of security camera footage outside of the parking garage, with Mayers walking in and out of the frame; a second, far more blurry piece of security footage of when the two shots were fired; two shell casings recovered at the scene of the crime — not by police but by Ephron, who says he returned to the scene after police, found them on the ground, and put them in a paper bag he got from a late night donut shop.

Perhaps one of their strongest pieces of evidence was introduced by the defense: a recording of a phone call between Ephron and a friend, Wally Sajimi, who taped the call without Ephron’s knowledge. During the call, Ephron tells his side of the story, and it’s fairly similar to his testimony: that Mayers pulled a real gun, catching him completely off guard; that he used one of the A$AP members as a human shield; and that he decided to sue Mayers shortly after the shooting. Why lie, Przelomiec asked, on a phone call when he didn’t know he was being recorded?

“He’s unequivocal,” Przelomiec said. “This was a real gun.”

Attention may have been diverted from Przelomiec’s speech when, about five minutes into it, Mayers’ partner, Rihanna, walked into the courtroom, this time with her and Mayers’ two young children, RZA and Riot, each dressed in formal toddler-wear, sucking on pacifiers, their hair done up in cornrows to match their father’s. Even the judge glanced over at them and smiled.

In the first part of his closing remarks, Joe Tacopina, Mayers’ lawyer, took aim at what is perhaps the real Achilles heel of the prosecution’s case: Ephron, otherwise known as A$AP Relli, who, during his nearly five days of testimony, was at times belligerent, contradictory and seemingly indifferent to the outcome of the case.

“This case is about Relli’s jealousy, lies and greed,” Tacopina said. “He and he alone is responsible for all the evidence in this case.” He later asked: “Who’s more credible: Twelvyy or Relli?”

Tacopina pointed out that his client had not one but two defenses: that the gun was fake and that it was fired in self-defense. Tacopina and his co-counsel have tried to show that it was Ephron who started the fight with Mayers and that Mayers only fired after Ephron began throwing “haymaker” punches at Mayers’ other friend, A$AP Illz.

The defense attorney will finish his closing statement on Friday morning, followed by a rebuttal statement from prosecutors. After that, the case will go to the jury. If they don’t make a decision by the end of the day, they won’t come back to court until Tuesday, as Monday is a national holiday. At least one of the jurors has said that she has to be back at work next week.

If convicted, Mayers faces up to 24 years in prison.

Follow @hillelaron