Trial of Rihanna’s partner starts

LOS ANGELES. − On the first day of A$AP Rocky ’s trial, jurors saw surveillance videos that a prosecutor argued make it clear the rapper fired a gun in 2021 at his former friend, who the defense cast as jealous, money-seeking rival who fabricated large parts of the story.

Rocky is the partner of Rihanna and they have two kids together.

Deputy District Attorney Paul Przelomiec gave a sober, straightforward presentation during opening statements Friday in the trial of the hip-hop star, fashion maven and actor. It relied almost entirely on the video evidence and audio from a 911 call.

“What will become almost instantly clear is that this is not a complicated case,” Przelomiec said.

Rocky’s attorney Joe Tacopina said in the defence opening statement that the video evidence is meaningless without the testimony of the accuser — Terell Ephron, who goes by A$AP Relli.

Tacopina argued Relli is driven by “jealousy, lies and greed.”

“This case rises or falls on his credibility,” Tacopina said, repeatedly calling Relli, “a perjurer and a criminal,” spurring prosecution objections.

“The videos you saw, without his testimony, prove absolutely nothing.”

The defence said that the gun was a starter pistol that shot only blanks — which they argued Relli knew — and Rocky carried only as a prop for protection.

The first video shown by the prosecution, captured from nearby but partly blocked, showed a physical struggle between two men — with two others intervening — outside a parking garage in Hollywood on the night of Nov. 6, 2021.

One of them, wearing a black hoodie, pulls out a gun and points it, but does not fire it.

“The evidence in this case will show that the man in the black sweatshirt is the defendant, Rakim Mayers,” Przelomiec said, using Rocky’s legal name.

“That evidence will be uncontradicted.”

Rocky has pleaded not guilty to two felony counts of assault with a semiautomatic firearm, charges that could lead to up to 24 years in prison.

Przelomiec showed two more videos of the moment from other cameras, minutes after the first confrontation, when he said shots were fired about a block away.

One shows a scuffle between four men in a tiny image in the corner of the frame. The other, shot at the same time, captures two gunshot sounds.

He also played a 911 call from minutes later.

“There’s been a shooting,” a woman with an Australian accent says. “We watched it. There were four men, and they were kind of fighting.”

The four men were all old friends, Przelomiec told the jurors. They had all been members of the A$AP Collective, a crew of creators established at a high school in New York around 2006. − Wires.