A Los Angeles judge ruled Monday that there is enough evidence for A$AP Rocky to stand trial on charges that he reportedly fired gun at a former friend and collaborator outside a Hollywood hotel in 2021. Rocky was arrested at Los Angeles International Airport in April and got charged with alleged assault in August.
Superior Court Judge M.L. Villar made the decision at a preliminary hearing, after hearing roughly a day and a half of testimony. Rocky has pleaded not guilty to two felony counts of alleged assault with a semiautomatic firearm.
Judge Villar said “the totality of the video and testimony” shows there is sufficient evidence for the defendant to go to trial. She emphasized that preliminary hearings have much lower evidence standard than a trial.
Commenting on the decision, Rocky’s attorney, Joe Tacopina explained, “We’re not disappointed, not surprised, we expected to go to trial, we’ve been planning for trial all along. Rocky is going to be vindicated when all this is said and done, without question.”
At the first day of the hearing, Terell Ephron testified that he and Rocky, a childhood friend, had belonged to the same group of musicians and artists at their New York high school. He said their relationship had started to deteriorate and resulted in the presumed standoff in Hollywood on Nov. 6, 2021, when he claims Rocky reportedly pulled a gun on him, and in a later conflict allegedly fired shots that grazed Ephron’s knuckles.
Prosecutors showed a video from near the scene where it sounds like two gunshots can be heard. Then an unidentified man comes running around a corner.. The man’s identity is not confirmed in the video, but LAPD Detective Frank Flores claimed that is is allegedly Rocky.
Flores testified under Tacopina’s questioning that no 9 mm pistol was recovered when a search warrant was served on Rocky. Tacopina also tried to cast doubt on the supposedly minor injury to Ephron’s hand, questioning why he waited until he returned to New York to seek medical treatment. He showed the detective a photo of the scraped fingers and said, sarcastically, “It’s a miracle he survived that shooting.”
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