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A$AP Rocky appeared in Los Angeles court to plead not guilty to his shooting A$AP Relli before an upcoming trial date.
On Monday (Jan. 8), A$AP Rocky appeared before Judge Karla Kerlin in a Los Angeles courtroom to plead not guilty to the shooting death of his former friend and collaborator A$AP Relli in Hollywood in November 2021. The rapper, also known as Rakim Myers, was accompanied by his legal team Joe Tacopina and Sarah Cohen. After entering the plea, A$AP Rocky left the courthouse and had no comment for reporters waiting outside. “We have a lot of evidence that we strongly suspect the prosecutors are not aware of,” Tacopina told reporters outside court.
A$AP Rocky was arrested at Los Angeles International Airport in April 2022 in connection with the crime. A$AP Relli, aka Terrell Ephron, claims that A$AP Rocky fired a gun twice in his direction, injuring him when the bullet hit him in the left arm. Surveillance video of the incident that included off-camera timestamps of the gun being fired, along with testimony admitted in court last November, prompted another judge to rule that there was sufficient evidence to proceed with a trial. The preliminary inquiry has been ordered to be held on March 6.
A$AP Rocky faces two counts of assault with a semi-automatic firearm and one count of personal use of a firearm. In a statement to Rolling Stone, Tacopina defended his client and said of A$AP Relli: “He's a failed associate — former associate — of Rocky and he's jealous. He was trying to get money from Rocky. He wanted Rocky to support him. He made it clear. There were repeated attempts where he tried to ask for money instead of not causing trouble for Rocky. That's what he said. We've memorized all of this in text messages and stuff, so it's blackmail.”
