Rapper's close call: A$AP Rocky found not guilty of firing handgun at former friend

Rapper A$AP Rocky was found not guilty on Tuesday of shooting a former acquaintance with a revolver on a Hollywood street in 2021.

"Thank y'all for saving my life," he thanked jurors as they departed the Los Angeles courthouse. They acquitted him of two felony charges of assault with a semiautomatic pistol.

'A$AP Rocky.'

Allison Dinner/Pool via Getty Images

If convicted, the 36-year-old hip-hop sensation, fashion mogul, and aspiring actor — real name Rakim Mayers — could face more than 24 years in jail.

On the eve of trial, he turned down a prosecution offer of only six months in jail, with probation and other conditions, if he pleaded guilty to one count.

Rocky, 36, insisted on his innocence and gambled that a jury would agree, despite having two little baby kids at home with his longterm lover Rihanna. It paid off. The jury believed there was reasonable doubt about his guilt.

When the verdict was delivered, Rihanna sobbed and hugged the defense attorneys. She attended the trial on occasion and brought the couple's two kids — 2-year-old RZA Athelston Mayers and 1-year-old Riot Rose Mayers — to part of the closing arguments.

The decision came at the height of Rocky's celebrity, if not the apex of his musical career. The three-time Grammy nominee is gearing up for a big year and can finally do it without fear of going to prison. He is expected to headline the Rolling Loud music festival in March; he is one of the celebrity co-chairs of fashion's biggest night, the Met Gala, in May; and he stars with Denzel Washington in filmmaker Spike Lee's film "Highest 2 Lowest," which will be released in early summer.

Prosecutors and witnesses claimed he was feuding with a former buddy, A$AP Relli, with whom he had been in a clique known as the A$AP Mob since high school. According to reports, the two guys met in Hollywood on November 6, 2021, and after a fight, Rocky pulled out his revolver and fired twice at Relli, who claimed one of the rounds grazed his knuckle but did not injure him significantly.

Rocky's lawyer, Joe Tacopina, said in his closing statement that Relli is "an angry pathological liar" who has "committed perjury repeatedly and again and again."

Rocky's attorneys and witnesses said he discharged a pretend gun that only fires blanks, which he had been carrying for protection since snatching it from a music video set months before. They said he fired it as a warning after Relli attacked another member of their group.

The jurors were informed that, despite the fact that three years had passed since the event, no one had raised the bogus gun to authorities until the day jury selection began at trial.

They were also told that if they concluded Rocky reasonably felt that he or one of his two companions were in imminent risk of injury and used reasonable force, the defendant might be found not guilty.

It was unclear if they reached the decision because they suspected he was carrying a fake gun or because he acted in self-defense. They were not required to agree on or explain their rationale outside of the jury room. They only had to reach the same conclusion.

Rocky decided not to testify in his own defense.

In his closing statement, Deputy District Attorney John Lewin encouraged the jurors not to be swayed by the celebrity or familial aspects of the case, claiming Rihanna's presence at the final arguments was an attempt to deceive the jury.

"You are not allowed to consider how this will affect Rihanna and his children," the prosecution said. "We are all responsible for our own actions in the world." HA