Rapper A$AP Rocky set for trial as judge rules there's enough evidence in Hollywood hotel shooting case
judge ruled Monday that there is enough evidence for A$AP Rocky to stand trial on charges that he fired a gun at a former friend and collaborator on the streets near a Hollywood hotel in 2021.
Superior Court Judge M.L.
Villar made the ruling at a preliminary hearing, after hearing roughly a day and a half of testimony from two witnesses. Rocky, who gave no visible reaction to the decision, has pleaded not guilty to two felony counts of assault with a semiautomatic firearm.
The 35-year-old rapper, fashion mogul and two-time Grammy nominee is in a relationship with Rihanna, with whom he has two young sons.
He could get up to 24 years in prison if convicted on all charges, prosecutors said.
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 a much lower evidence standard than a trial.
«We're not disappointed, not surprised, we expected to go to trial, we've been planning for trial all along,» Rocky's attorney, Joe Tacopina, said outside court.
«Rocky is going to be vindicated when all this is said and done, without question.»
At the first day of the hearing, which resumed Monday after a long delay, Terell Ephron testified that he and Rocky, a friend since childhood, had belonged to the same collective of musicians and artists at their New York high school.
He said their relationship had started to go sour and resulted in the standoff in Hollywood on Nov. 6, 2021, when he said Rocky first pulled a gun on him, and in a later confrontation fired shots that grazed Ephron's knuckles.
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