Hollywood

Rapper A$AP Rocky rejects plea deal ahead of trial

Allegations state Rocky pulled a gun on another hip hop artist during an altercation in Hollywood. He then allegedly fired at him soon afterward

A$AP Rocky at 2024 Footwear News Achievement Awards – Cocktails at Cipriani South Street on December 04, 2024 in New York, New York. (Photo by Katie Jones/Footwear News via Getty Images)

Rakim Mayers, better known by musical pseudonym A$AP Rocky, rejected a plea deal Tuesday afternoon ahead of his trial.

The offer included six months behind bars, three years probation and a suspended seven-year term if he pled guilty to one of the two assault charges against him.

Rocky is charged with two counts of assault with a semiautomatic firearm. He also faces allegations that he used a firearm during a confrontation with Terell Ephron on Nov. 6, 2021. He was not formally charged until August of 2022.

Rocky's attorney, Joe Tacopina, said at a hearing Tuesday the defense plans to call witnesses who are expected to testify the gun was a starter pistol that the rapper carried it as a prop for security reasons.

Ephron originally testified in November of 2023 that he saw Rocky outside a parking garage in an encounter partially Ephron told the judge Rocky pulled the gun on him, and said "I'll kill you right now.'' He then followed Rocky after saying he saw another man in the rapper's entourage apparently putting a pocket knife away.

Ephron said he believed the rapper had become "big-headed'' from his success and that he "failed everybody."

The trial began early Tuesday afternoon with jury selection.

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