A$AP Rocky could learn Monday whether he will likely be ordered to trial on allegations that he fired a gun at a former friend and collaborator outside a Hollywood hotel.
A Los Angeles judge is about to listen to evidence Monday against the 35-year-old rap star and father of two children with Rihanna as he decides whether he should stand trial on two felony counts of assault with a semiautomatic firearm.
He has pleaded not guilty.
Prosecutors allege that outside the W. Hotel in Hollywood on Nov. 6, 2021, Rocky pointed a handgun at Terell Ephron, then in a confrontation soon after fired shots that grazed Ephron’s knuckles and left him with minor injuries.
At the primary day of the hearing earlier this month, Ephron, who once went by A$AP Relli, testified that he and Rocky were close friends as teens together with the opposite members of the A$AP collective, a gaggle of Latest York highschool students who sought to make music and pursue other art forms.
He said their friendship lasted until well after Rocky became a star, but began to fray after he felt that Rocky had did not follow through on promised business ventures and had neglected the opposite members of their highschool collective, who were having difficult lives.
The stress got here to a head when the shots were fired in 2021, he said.
Prosecutors also played surveillance video that captured a part of the incident.
It appears to point out Rocky brandishing a gun and possibly firing it, though his lawyers deny that he did so.
Rocky was arrested at Los Angeles International Airport within the case in April, and charged in August.
He attended the Nov. 8 hearing, as is usually required in felony cases, and is predicted to be in court Monday.
He’s a two-time Grammy nominee whose first two studio albums in 2013 and 2015 each went to No. 1 on the Billboard 200.
He has released little music lately, and has develop into higher often called the romantic partner, fellow fashion influencer and co-parent of Rihanna, with whom he had a second son in May.
Rocky also became an unlikely cause for then-President Donald Trump, who said he was attempting to get the rapper freed and returned to the U.S. when he was jailed after a brawl in Sweden in 2019.
He was found guilty of assault at trial but was given a “conditional sentence” that meant no additional jail time.
Now, Rocky is being represented within the Los Angeles case by Trump lawyer Joe Tacopina, who representing the ex-president in his Latest York criminal case and others.
Tacopina took on Ephron in contentious cross-examination during his Nov. 8 testimony, suggesting along with his questioning that Ephron was fabricating the incident for financial gain because he has also filed a civil lawsuit.
In California courts, preliminary hearings like these are a form of miniature version of a trial, with only a judge deciding whether sufficient evidence exists to maneuver forward.
The usual of proof for doing so is way lower than what’s required for criminal guilt.
Superior Court Judge M.L. Villar could make a choice on moving forward to trial as early as Monday, though the testimony or his ruling could take longer.
