Rihanna makes court appearance at trial of partner ASAP Rocky

Rihanna has attended the Los Angeles trial of her partner, rapper ASAP Rocky with whom she has two toddlers, for the first time.

The singer superstar sat in the Los Angeles criminal court on Wednesday morning next to Rocky’s mother and sister. He has been standing trial on charges that he fired a handgun at a former friend.

Rocky’s lawyers said before the trial began on January 21 that Rihanna could appear in the court to support him, but it was unlikely, and that he might be too protective of her and their family to want her present.

When jurors were being selected, prosecutors asked them whether Rihanna’s connection to the case, especially if she appeared in court, would affect their ability to deliver a guilty verdict.

Nearly all those questioned had heard of her – far more than had heard of Rocky – and some described themselves as fans, but all said they felt it would not affect their decisions.

Rocky, whose legal name is Rakim Athelston Mayers, could get up to 24 years in prison if he is convicted of two counts of assault with a semi-automatic firearm.

He and Rihanna, both 36, have two sons together: two-year-old RZA Athelston Mayers and one-year-old Riot Rose Mayers. She revealed she was pregnant with the younger boy after headlining the Super Bowl halftime show in 2023 with a visible baby bump.

The singer and the rapper, who are both fashion moguls, first became close when he provided a verse for her 2012 song Cockiness (Love It) and they performed it at the MTV Video Music Awards. They became a couple in 2020.

She attended on Wednesday as a former friend of Rocky gave evidence about the moment the hip-hop performer allegedly fired a gun at him on a Hollywood street in 2021.

The trial’s key witness, known as ASAP Relli, is providing what is likely to be the trial’s most important piece of evidence.

“I was hit. Or I was grazed. I didn’t have a hole or nothing,” Relli told jurors.

The trial’s key witness said he grabbed one of their mutual friends who were with Rocky after the first shot was fired and stood behind him for protection. He said he did not see Rocky fire the second shot, and Rocky ran away moments later.

Relli then testified he was walking after Rocky and shouting at him when Rocky turned around and fired. Rocky had lifted the gun up and aimed downward, Relli said.

Earlier in the trial, Relli, born Terell Ephron, said he and Rocky, members of ASAP, a crew of creators at a New York high school, had been close but their relationship eroded after Rocky became famous.

He said their relationship had been strained for years and was getting worse in the previous days, but he was still “furious” when Rocky pulled a gun on him after a scuffle that began the moment the two met up near the W Hotel.

“I told him to use it. Because mentally I couldn’t believe it,” Relli testified.

“I physically could not believe there was a gun in my face. That was the breaking point for me.”

He said he had expected to argue but also to reconcile with Rocky, and the last thing he wanted to do was to get into a fight that could ruin the modest music management business he had built. His lawyer says the shots he fired were blanks from a starter pistol that he carried as a prop.

“He’s famous,” Relli said. “I’m nobody.”

Raised in Harlem, Rocky’s rap songs became a phenomenon in New York in 2011. He had his mainstream breakthrough when his first studio album went to No 1 on the Billboard 200 in 2013. The second one, in 2015, did the same.

He is set to have his biggest career year as a multimedia star. This Sunday, he is nominated for a Grammy Award for best music video for his song Tailor Swif, at the ceremony at Crypto.com Arena just two miles from the Los Angeles court where his trial is being held.

He is also set to headline the Rolling Loud Music Festival, to star opposite Denzel Washington in a film directed by Spike Lee, and to co-chair the Met Gala in May.

But the prospect of a conviction and the possibility of lengthy prison sentence casts a shadow over all of it.