Closing arguments take place in trial of US rapper ASAP Rocky

Closing arguments have begun in the trial of US rapper ASAP Rocky who denies firing at a former friend with a handgun.

The Grammy-nominated music star, fashion mogul and actor is the long-time partner of singing superstar Rihanna, who entered the courtroom in Los Angeles a few minutes into Thursday’s session.

For the first time she brought their two toddler sons with her. They were dressed in suits and could be heard making cooing noises as a prosecutor talked.

“There is one critical question you have to answer,” Deputy District Attorney Paul Przelomiec told the Los Angeles jurors. “Was it a real gun or was it a fake gun?” he said. “Nothing else is in dispute.”

The closing speeches will likely last into Friday, when jurors should begin deliberating on two felony counts of assault with a semi-automatic firearm over the 2021 shooting. If they convict Rocky of both, he could get up to 24 years in prison.

Evidence ended on Tuesday, when Rocky and his lawyers told a judge he would not testify.

The prosecution’s case rests largely on the credibility of the man Rocky is alleged to have fired on.

ASAP Relli, whose legal name is Terell Ephron, became friends with Rocky, born Rakim Mayers, in high school in New York, where both were members of a crew of creative types called the ASAP Mob.

Their friendship continued after Rocky gained global fame with a pair of number on albums in 2012 and 2013, but by November 6 2021 they had fallen out.

They met up outside a Hollywood hotel and scuffled once they saw each other. In a second confrontation moments later, Rocky fired the shots.

Relli said his knuckles were grazed by one of them. The fights were partially captured on surveillance videos that are not clear enough for easy interpretation.

ASAP Twelvyy, another member of the crew who was with Rocky, testified that Relli was the aggressor, and that Rocky fired the shots as a warning to stop him from attacking another member of their crew.

Twelvyy testified that Rocky fired blanks from a starter pistol that the rapper had been carrying for security since a music video shoot months earlier, and that everyone involved knew it. Rocky’s tour manager also testified that he carried the fake gun.

Prosecutors argued that the whole idea of the prop gun is a preposterous lie coordinated by Rocky’s inner circle.

Mr Przelomiec zeroed in on Twelvyy.

“This sounds like a man who is giving pre-programmed answers,” he told the jurors. “I don’t have to tell you he was being coached.”

Neither gun was found or presented as evidence.

Police who searched the area after a report of a shooting found no physical evidence but Relli went to a police department two days later with two shell casings he said he had picked up after returning to the scene.

In closing arguments, the defence will contend that video evidence and text messages cannot be trusted, nor can Relli.

He also filed a lawsuit in the case, and Rocky’s lawyers will cast him as a jealous opportunist out for the money of a former friend who became famous.

Relli vowed to do just that in text messages and in phone calls recorded by a mutual friend who gave the recordings to Rocky. Relli said in his evidence that the calls were faked.