If the gun is legal, you will not be innocent.
Respond to the famous lines from another celebrity trial held in the Los Angeles County Deputy District. Atti. Paul Przelomiec told jurors that the jurors determined the fate of ASAP Rocky, and the case boiled down to a simple question of whether the rapper claimed he was wielding a fake gun in the alleged shooting.
“In this case, there is only one important question…whether he uses a real gun or a fake gun?” he asked. “No other dispute.”
The controversial three-week trial focused on a collapsed friendship in the ASAP mob rap that reached a confrontation outside the W Hotel in Hollywood. Prosecutors claimed Rocky’s legal name was Rakim Mayers, and fired two shots after a heated argument.
His lawyer claimed he was wrongly charged and he insisted that the weapon was a prop he took out of a music video shot by Rihanna on Paramour Pop Star.
Loki faces nearly 20 years in prison if two semi-automatic guns are convicted.
The incident began on November 6, 2021, when Terrell Ephron (aka Relli) went to Rocky to fix their collapsed relationship, prosecutors said. Ephron mistakenly believes that Rocky failed to pay for another ASAP member’s funeral, and the gap between the two has intensified. Authorities say Rocky appears with two other members of the ASAP mob and intends to resolve their disputes violently.
The video of the incident apparently captures Loki holding a gun, but the actual shot is grainy. LAPD officials said there was no forensic evidence to tie Mayer to the alleged attack, and according to LAPD officials, there was no evidence of the shooting at the initial police carvings of the crime scene on the 911 phone.
The only witness to Rocky as a shooter is Ephron, who struggles during cross-examination. Defense attorney Joe Tacopina portrayed him as a “forger” who contacted the police only after retaining a civil attorney to sue his former friend. Efroun claimed he recovered Shell at the crime scene and reported the shooting two days later.
Tacopina admitted at the beginning of the trial that Rocky was the one who opened fire in the video – but lawyers argued that his client used fake weapons that only fired blanks. Several defense witnesses testified that Rocky began carrying artificial guns after an attack at a nightclub.
During the end of the argument, Przelomiec described the prop defense gun as a desperate, 11-hour attempt to rewrite the facts.
Prosecutors elaborated on the main defense witnesses, questioning why the two ASAP crew members with Rocky on the night of the shooting never told police that the weapons were fake in the years between the shooting and the trial. Przelomiec also asked why Rocky’s manager returned it to the music video’s co-director rather than saving it as evidence of the trial.
“Did the defense prove to you that this prop gun once existed? You want to hear it from the co-director you have now,” the prosecutor said.
The person was never called a witness by the defense.
Prozelomiec dismissed testimony from other ASAP mob members – Jamel Phillips, AKA ASAP 12VVY, and Rocky’s travel manager Louis Levin (aka ASAP Lou), is a “convenient” novel for those who rely on Rocky’s successful income.
Tacopina spent his ending argument to tear down Ephron’s credibility, calling him “the worst witness in American law history”, working only with police to blackmail his superstar former friend . He also argued that prosecutors failed to prove that real guns were used in the incident.
When police found several guns in search of Rocky’s home, including a 0.44 Magnum beside his bed, but no weapons were handed over with Shell’s Ephron. The search did publish a magazine where gun experts testify that the round could bring Relli back.
However, Levin testified that the magazine was his, who left it at Rocky’s home after drinking for a night.
Tacopina raised the idea of Efron planting shells after capturing multiple lies during cross-examination.
When asked if he went to the shooting range a few weeks before the incident, Efroon said “absolutely not” just Tacopina made a videotape to show him that he had been in Los Angeles weeks before the alleged attacks Center shooting pistol.
Przelomiec retorted that Efrolong traveled from Los Angeles to New York and then returned before the shooting, deeming that he could not have transported the shells he spent by safely.
Efroun claimed that the audio of him discussing the shooting with a mutual friend on a phone was “fake”. But another video came to the surface and caught him, discussing what he would do if he got a civil settlement in the shooting ahead of the shooting.
“Basically, I’ll walk away because I’ll find me on another island because I’ll relax on another island,” Everon said on the recorded phone.
“It has nothing to do with justice for him,” Tacopina said Friday. “It’s about spending and rewards.”
However, Lewin believes that the recording is strong evidence for the prosecution because it improves Efroon’s credibility and shows him the private description of the shooting, the same way he did in court.
The man Efron was injured in the shooting was very small and had a pair of small incisions on his hand. Although prosecutors did not need to prove that the elements of the assault charge were met without proof of actual injuries, Tacopina lashed on the “scratch” because Rocky opened that night that night There is a blank space.
“King scratches? Even they don’t think it’s a gunshot wound,” Tacopina said. “There is no bullet in the world that can do this. It scratches the top of one knuckle, kind of dives on the second knuckle…and then step on. That would be a magic bullet to do this.”
Tacopina also made a self-defense debate that Rocky shot the blank to protect himself after Efroon began to fight and slammed Phillips. The scene did not seem to capture Efrom’s attack on anyone, and Przelomiec showed Phillips’s photos the day after the shooting, with no obvious damage on his face.
Rocky refuses to testify in his defense and sits ruthlessly for most of the trial, except for the few times Rihanna appears in the gallery. She watched Przelomiec’s closing with two nearby children and could see Rocky playing with one of his sons in the hallway Thursday.
Tension between Tacopina and the secondary area. Atti. John Lewin was added to the case at the last minute of January, running high throughout the trial.
The senior prosecutor, known for his firepower character, won the murder charges against real estate heir Robert Durst. He repeatedly accused Tacopina of immoral behavior and misconduct between active cross-examination of defense witnesses. At one point in the trial, he claimed that Tacopina challenged him to fight. Tacopina later mocked Lewin for allegations of misconduct he faced after the Durst trial.
On Friday, Levin accused Takopina of false misconduct allegations against the prosecution in his closing remarks, and the two exploded in a fierce exchange of insults. Lewin threatened to disclose “everything happened in this trial”, and Tacopina responded to the prosecutor’s face. Levin then accused Tacopina of using steroids, which Tacopina then called him “fat” and “hunchback”. Tacopina is taken to the room by his colleagues, and Rocky smiles.
Levin had previously said he would not comment on the ongoing trial. Przelomiec declined to answer questions about Lewin cited.
Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Mark Arnold yelled two brave lawyers in every aspect of the trial and said he was planning a hearing to face Tacopina and Lewin, a court spokesman said Implement monetary sanctions.
Beside celebrity drama and court fireworks, Przelomiec insisted on Thursday that the case was very simple.
“When you decide on a gun in this case, it’s the real gun,” he said. “This case is over.”
