Blitz Bureau
LOS ANGELES: In a stretch of questioning crucial to the defence of A$AP Rocky, his lawyer challenged the account of his accuser, who said he suffered a hand injury when the hip-hop performer fired a gun at him in 2021.
Superstar singer Rihanna, Rocky’s partner and the mother of their two children, watched from the audience as the man who goes by A$AP Relli, a former friend of Rocky, underwent a second day of cross-examination at the Los Angeles trial that left him visibly frustrated and at times angry.
She slipped into court for a third day about 30 minutes into the testimony and sat next to Rocky’s mother after coming in through a public entrance. After the lunch break, she entered the courtroom together with Rocky for the first time. She left separately and climbed into an SUV outside the courthouse, saying “I’m good, thank you” when a reporter asked how she was holding up. She had been brought in secretly on her two previous visits.
Relli had testified under prosecution questioning that his hand felt hot when Rocky fired at him on a Hollywood street and his hand was grazed. A photo was shown of scrapes that had torn the skin on his knuckles.
He did not seek medical attention until two days later in New York. “You waited to fly all the way across country before seeking medical attention?” defence attorney Joe Tacopina asked. “I had my hand wrapped that night,” Relli said, then acknowledged he had. He said that after the incident, “I didn’t trust LA. I didn’t trust nobody.” Rocky’s attorneys contend that Relli only sought medical attention because the lawyer in a separate civil case where he’s seeking money from the rapper, told him he should.
