‘Squabbling’ continues in A$AP Rocky shooting trial 

(CN) — The judge overseeing the trial against hip-hop star A$AP Rocky, who is accused of firing a gun in a 2021 altercation with a former friend in Hollywood, declared the courtroom a “no squabble zone” on Monday as tensions remained high during questioning of the state’s key witness, A$AP Relli.

Relli, whose real name is Terrell Ephron, has testified that Rocky, his former friend since high school, fired two shots at him from a semiautomatic handgun when the two met up to bury their beef after a falling out.

Rocky, whose real name is Rakim Mayers, has built his defense around the proposition that he fired only blanks from a prop gun or “starter’s pistol” and accused Ephron of planting shell casings at the scene.

When asked by Deputy District Attorney Paul Przelomiec about whether he was aware of the notion Mayers fired only a prop gun before the trial, Ephron responded “no.” Przelomiec also asked if anyone had been acting like the gun was anything but real.

“Absolutely not,” Ephron said.

He then reviewed texts he sent to Mayers in which he said “U try to kill me” and accused him of trying to take him away from his daughter.

Ephron’s demeanor changed significantly when Mayers’ attorney, Joe Tacopina, returned for cross-examination and the two resumed their contentious exchanges, to the point where Superior Court Judge Mark Arnold ordered Ephron to stop insulting the attorney after the witness shouted, “You’re annoying, bro!”

Tacopina zeroed in on a statement Ephron made last week, in which he said that a video of him firing a semi-automatic pistol two weeks before the altercation was taken at a firing range in his home state of New Jersey, and what then inspired him to check his Instagram and call prosecutors on Sunday to tell them it was in fact a Los Angeles gun club.

Tacopina grilled Ephron on whether it was a “mere coincidence” that his memory about where the firing range video was taken became refreshed coincidentally after a post comparing the video to an image of the Los Angeles range was posted online over the weekend.

“You’re a lot,” Ephron said. “I had to figure it out.”

Not letting up, Tacopina continued to question why Ephron had testified that he had “definitely not” fired 9mm weapons at the gun club, when in fact he had.

“To be honest, I just wanted to stop talking to you,” Ephron said.

During his testimony on Friday, Ephron insisted that two audio recordings the defense presented of him speaking on the phone to a mutual friend of his and Mayers, Wally Sajimi, were fake and artificial intelligence had been used to spoof his voice. Tacopina asked Ephron why he called Sajimi on the lunch break last week if he was so certain they were not real.

“Because you guys just keep playing fake audio to me, fake stuff,” Ephron said. “I never said none of that to him, it doesn’t even make sense, you’re trying to slip it in.”

Following an interjection from Deputy District Attorney John Lewin — who moved to strike a portion of Ephron’s response, leading to a debate on law with Tacopina — the judge ordered the two attorneys to “stop,” a command that had become a common refrain in the courtroom.

“This is a no-squabble zone. Stop it,” Arnold demanded.

Following the lunch break, the defense called Sajimi to the witness stand to testify to the credibility of the audio recordings he made of his and Ephron’s phone conversations in May and August 2022.

Sajimi, a tech consultant, told the court that Ephron asked him to promote articles about the incident to boost his social media and he served as an unofficial “mediator” between the two former friends in the wake of the altercation. He said he had missed multiple calls from Ephron and decided to tape his call back.

“I kinda felt unsafe, just wanted to protect myself,” Sajimi said.

In one of the recordings, the voice Sajimi identified as Ephron said he would stop working with the state on the criminal case once he is paid.

“Once I walk away, when I get my cash, the case will get way weaker," the voice in the recording says. “It’s going to be hard for the DA to find me, because I’m going to be on another island.”

On cross-examination, Lewin didn’t question the validity of the recordings but instead tore into the content and Sajimi’s explanation behind the recordings.

“Do you think that friends tape other friend’s phone calls?” Lewin asked.

“Sometimes,” Sajimi offered.

The prosecutor asked why, if Sajimi testified that he had only heard about the altercation from Ephron during their May 2022 phone call, he answered the call stating he “didn’t want to take sides” between the two. Sajimi changed his answer, saying it was possible he had been texted about the incident.

Lewin also noted that throughout the recordings, Ephron’s story that he had been shot at stayed consistent, and he questioned Sajimi as to whether he had ever asked Mayers about the incident, to which the witness said “no.”

The trial is expected to continue through the end of the week. Pop superstar Rihanna, Mayers’ partner and mother of their two children, was absent from the courtroom after appearing in the audience for the first three days that Ephron took the witness stand. Mayers faces up to 24 years in prison if he is convicted.