A$AP Rocky may take the risk of testifying at his felony assault trial

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A$AP Rocky and his attorneys revealed that they may have the hip-hop star take the stand Tuesday in his own defense at his trial over two felony counts of assault with a semiautomatic firearm.

In discussion with a Los Angeles judge on the last phases of Rocky's trial late Monday, his lawyer Joe Tacopina said that either his client would testify early Tuesday or the defense would rest its case. An attorney for the prosecution said his team was going to spend the night preparing for Rocky's testimony.

He is not legally required to testify, and subjecting a defendant to cross-examination is often a major risk in criminal cases.

Tacopina said before the trial that Rocky was “eager to tell his story. He would love the opportunity to do so.”

The attorneys could not give comment outside court Monday because a judge has forbidden them from speaking to the media. Rocky faces up to 24 years in prison if convicted.

The Grammy-nominated hip-hop star, fashion mogul and actor is the longtime partner of singing superstar Rihanna, with whom he has two toddler sons. She was not in the courtroom Monday, but has appeared sporadically — most recently on Friday, when they left the courthouse together for the first time, walking arm-in-arm.

She may appear Tuesday to watch him take the stand.

Rocky, whose legal name is Rakim Mayers, would likely testify that a gun he fired twice — in a scuffle with a former friend on a Hollywood street corner in 2021 — was a starter pistol that only fired blanks, and that he carried it for security.

On Monday, his tour manager became the second witness from Rocky's inner circle to testify that he carried the phony gun.

Lou Levin said he told the rapper it made sense to carry it after Rocky's house had been broken into by a stalker and others.

“Security and I thought it would be a good idea, because of the prior violence," Levin said. "It’s just a nonlethal form of self-defense.”

Levin said he got the gun from a video shoot in the summer of 2021, about three months before the incident that led to the charges.

“I was on set and I handled it there, saw him take it,” Levin said.

He told the jury that he returned the phony gun to the music video's co-director, who no longer had it when Levin asked about it after Rocky's arrest. The defense said it does not have the starter pistol now.

Authorities also did not recover the pistol they allege Rocky used.

Levin testified that an ammunition magazine found in Rocky's house by officers serving a search warrant actually belonged to him. The prosecution is arguing the magazine could have been compatible with rounds recovered by the man who Rocky is alleged to have shot. Levin said he bought the wrong type of magazine by mistake and left it at Rocky's house.

Deputy District Attorney John Lewin said “you had to come up with a story” to explain why he bought a magazine for a type of gun he didn’t own, and left it at Rocky’s house. He later angrily called every aspect of the story “a lie.”

“I didn’t have to come up with a story — it’s the truth,” Levin said.

Levin also testified that he saw the prop gun in Rocky's possession earlier on the day of the incident, though he was not there at the confrontation.

Levin, who also goes by A$AP Lou, said he had worked as Rocky's personal assistant since 2010, and became his tour manager around 2017.

Lewin asked him whether he had an interest in whether his close friend and sometime employer is convicted or not.

“Well, I read that he was facing 24 years, I don’t want to see him go to jail for 24 years.”

The answer was stricken from the record because the jury was not supposed to hear the potential sentence length.

Rocky is accused of firing two shots at A$AP Relli, a fellow member of the A$AP Mob, a crew of musicians and other creators they formed in high school in New York.

Relli, whose legal name is Terell Ephron, said his knuckles were grazed in the shooting, but he wasn't otherwise injured. Police who searched the scene after a report of a shooting found no physical evidence. But Relli returned to the scene and said he recovered two 9mm shell casings. He took those to police when he went to report the incident two days later.