Pop star Rihanna has released a statement after her partner and fellow musician A$AP Rocky, was found not guilty in a felony criminal trial in Los Angeles.
A jury returned the verdict on Tuesday (19 February) afternoon after deliberating for just three hours.
Upon hearing the verdict, the hip-hop star, whose real name is Rakim Mayers, turned and ran to embrace jubilant supporters behind him – falling over as he did so.
“Thank y’all for saving my life,” Mayers told jurors as they left the courtroom. When the verdict was read Rihanna reportedly cried and hugged the defence lawyers.
The rapper, 36, was charged with two felony counts of assault with a semiautomatic firearm. If convicted, he could have faced up to 24 years in prison.
In a short statement released on her Instagram, the “Umbrella” singer wrote: “The glory belongs to god and god alone! Thankful, humbled by his mercy.”
The couple have been in a relationship since 2021 and have two children together.
Speaking outside the Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center, Mayers shared similar sentiments, telling the press: “First of all, I got to thank God. We want to thank God first, you know what I’m saying? And I really want to thank the jury for making the right decision. I’m just so thankful. This is crazy right now. This whole experience has been crazy, for the past four years, but I’m thankful, nonetheless, I’m thankful. Blessed to be here right now, to be a free man talkin’ to y’all. Thank you. All praise to god.”
On the eve of trial, Mayers turned down a prosecution offer of just six months in jail, along with probation and other conditions, if he would plead guilty to one count.
Prosecutors alleged that Mayers twice fired a gun at his former longtime friend and fellow rapper A$AP Relli during a dispute on a Hollywood street.
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The pair had been part of a crew that had called themselves the “A$AP Mob” since high school. Prosecutors alleged that the two men met up in Hollywood on 6 November 2021, and after a scuffle, Rocky pulled the gun and fired twice at his former friend.
Relli, real name Terrell Ephron, was the key witness for the prosecution. In his testimony, which made up the bulk of the prosecution’s case, he said his knuckles were grazed by one of the shots, but he was otherwise uninjured.
The defence argued that Mayers fired blanks from a prop gun he had picked up from a music video set, bringing in two members of the rapper’s inner circle to attest to this.
Mayers’ lawyer Joe Tacopina said in his closing argument that Ephron is “an angry pathological liar” who “committed perjury again and again and again and again.”
Speaking to reporters later, Tacopina said Mayer’s was “very well loved” in Los Angeles. “I’ve been here for over a month and just me walking around… people were just wishing me luck for him.
“I mean, he’s loved very well, loved in the city… he’s got a lot of fans, and that doesn’t happen because he’s a singer. It happens because of who he is as a person. He does incredible charity work. He gives back to the community.
He added: “He’s become a dear friend of mine more than a client. And that’s why cases like this are really difficult for me because there’s so much on the line. I mean, I care about every client I represent to the point where they become family.
“This was at a different level. And so I was just not prepared for, I would not accept any other verb for this one.”
