A$AP Rocky’s ex-friend and accuser says tensions were high in moments before alleged shooting

By Canadian Press on January 28, 2025.

A$AP Rocky ‘s accuser, former friend and the key witness testified Tuesday that their relationship had long been tense, and came to a head in the days before Rocky is alleged to have fired a handgun at him.

Rocky, the rapper and partner of Rihanna, has pleaded not guilty to two felony counts of assault with a semiautomatic firearm for allegedly firing at the friend who goes by A$AP Relli.

“He’s famous,” Relli told the jury Tuesday. “I’m nobody.”

Relli, whose legal name is Terell Ephron, described how he and Rocky, born Rakim Mayers, were part of the same collective of creators and aspiring entrepreneurs at a New York high school who called themselves A$AP — which stands for Always Strive and Prosper, but can mean many things.

They remained close for years, as Rocky’s star rose, and Relli got into music management.

Relli said he and Rocky were like brothers, and saw each other every day, “up until he got famous.” Then, he said, he didn’t have time for his friend.

“I mean it’s always been like that. It’s really hard having a relationship with Rocky, he lies a lot,” Relli testified. “I called him Mr. Six Month Man. i would see him every six months. When he came around it was fake. What are we supposed to be in this A$AP thing for?”

Relli said the last thing he wanted to do was to fight someone as prominent as Rocky, because his career “would be over. Literally over. You don’t have a career.”

Relli spoke quietly and reluctantly at first.

“I got anxiety,” he said at one point.

Rocky stared at him without looking away throughout the testimony.

Relli grew louder and took on a more forceful tone as he described the run-up to the confrontation on the streets of Hollywood, where both were staying on separate trips from their New York homes.

Relli overheard Rocky slam him with a series of slurs and swear words while he rode in an SUV with a mutual friend the day before. It was over speaker phone, which Rocky didn’t seem to know.

Deputy District Attorney Paul Przelomiec had him read from a series of text messages Rocky sent him on Nov. 6, 2021.

“Where you at?, Let’s get to it, stop ducking my calls,” the texts read.

Przelomiec asked how he interpreted the text.

“I had kind of an idea that he wanted to fight or something, just argue or something,” Relli said.

The two set up a meeting, and Relli said he thought they would argue but reconcile. He said Rocky seemed to have other ideas.

“He didn’t read the room,” Relli said. “He didn’t take a second to think.”

Prosecutors say Rocky pulled out a handgun and fired two shots at Relli, who says bullets grazed his knuckles.

The defense argues Relli was the aggressor, and Rocky fired a starter pistol to break up a fight between him and another member of their crew. They said Rocky carried the pistol, which only shoots blanks, for security.

Before the jury was brought in, the defense revealed that they do not have the pistol.

“Does the prop gun exist?” Judge Matthew Arnold asked.

“The prop gun did exist,” Rocky’s lawyer Joe Tacopina said. “It does not now. We don’t have it.”

Rocky’s lawyers said Relli, who has also filed a civil lawsuit, is driven by “ jealousy, lies and greed ” and fabricated large parts of the story to get money.

Earlier Tuesday, the defense cross-examined a police officer who responded to reports of a shooting about the absence of evidence at the scene.

“There was no sign of a shooting?” Tacopina asked.

“No,” said Sgt. Thomas Zizzo.

“No blood?”

“No.”

“No bullet holes?”

“No.”

No shell casings?

“No.”

“No physical evidence that a shooting happened at all?”

“No.”

Two days after the shooting, Relli himself brought two shell casings to police that he said he had found at the scene after the police had searched.

Video from Zizzo’s body camera played in court, showing seven officers who searched the scene and found nothing.

In earlier testimony Friday, Zizzo said that while police searched thoroughly, “we may have missed something.”

The officer, who served in the Hollywood area, is the son of Erika Jayne, former star of “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” and ex-wife of Tom Girardi, a disgraced and disbarred star lawyer who is awaiting sentencing at his own downtown LA trial.

Rihanna, Rocky’s longtime partner and the mother of their two toddler sons, was not in court. Rocky’s lawyers said an appearance is unlikely but possible.

Andrew Dalton, The Associated Press