A$AP Rocky's lawyer slams his accuser as an aggressor and liar as assault trial nears end

LOS ANGELES — An attorney defending A$AP Rocky took aim at the hip-hop star's accuser during his closing argument Friday, casting the man known as A$AP Relli as the clear aggressor on the night Rocky fired a gun and an unreliable liar on the stand at trial.

Lawyer Joe Tacopina slow-walked the Los Angeles jurors through Relli's long and testy testimony in the final stretch of a closing argument that began Thursday afternoon. It will be followed by a prosecution rebuttal. Then the jury will begin deliberations on two felony counts of assault with a semiautomatic firearm. A conviction on both could mean up to 24 years in prison for the 36-year-old Rocky.

The defense is arguing that Rocky fired blanks from a prop gun on a Hollywood street corner on Nov. 6, 2021, as a warning it to get his former friend Relli to stop attacking another member of the A$AP Mob, a crew of creators the men formed in high school.

Tacopina showed the jury belligerent text messages from just before the confrontation, later deleted by Relli, where he urges Rocky to beat him up. The prosecution had shown only Rocky's angry responses to suggest he started the fight. But it was not the opposing lawyers' fault, he said.

''Their witness lied to them, lied to police, and deleted the messages,'' Tacopina said. ''He destroyed evidence.''

Tacopina showed jurors the transcript of the moment he confronted Relli about the messages during his cross-examination.

''At first he said, ‘I don't recall.' Then I showed him the messages,'' Tacopina said. ''What did he say next? His go-to line. ‘It's fake! It's fake!' Anything that crushed him was fake.''

He dwelled on how combative Relli was during his questioning.

''That was in front of you," Tacopina said. "Imagine what he's like in the street.''

Shifting to the street, Tacopina narrated the surveillance video that partially showed the initial confrontation between the men to say Relli started the fight. He pointed out that the video shows Relli raising his arm to take on Rocky as the first move — though Rocky is out of frame at that moment.

Even if jurors don't buy the phony gun argument, they can acquit by finding that Rocky was acting in defense of himself or his friends.

Tacopina asked the jurors how much trust they would put in Relli.

''If you had to make a decision, the most important in your life or that of your family's, on his word, would you do it? You all know what the answer to that question is,'' the lawyer said. Then he pointed at Rocky. ''What you're being asked to do is to make that decision in the most important matter of his life.''

Rocky's longtime partner, singing superstar Rihanna, slipped in during the proceedings, as she often did through the three-week trial. At the beginning of closing arguments Thursday, she brought their toddler sons with her, but she was alone Friday.

In the prosecution's closing argument, Deputy District Attorney Paul Przelomiec told jurors the ''overwhelming evidence in this case is that it was a real gun," and that the two men from Rocky's inner circle who testified that it wasn't were clearly telling coordinated lies.

Neither side produced a gun as evidence.

Relli said his knuckles were grazed by one of the shots but he was otherwise not injured.

The bickering between two lawyers in the case that has gone on throughout the trial came to a head during a break Friday, with the jury out of the room.

Deputy District Attorney John Lewin, who according to the judge objected 17 times during Tacopina's closing accused his opponent of having no ethics. Tacopina began to talk about something an appeals court said about Lewin, who then exploded.

''Your honor, one more thing about him and we air everything that's happened in this case!'' Lewin screamed. ''He might want to stop!''

Tacopina responded, ''Ooh, I'm so threatened by you!''

''Yeah, you should be Joe,'' Lewin said. ''You should be.''

The shouting match got increasingly personal as Judge Mark Arnold barked at both of them, as he's done repeatedly over the past three weeks.

''Stop it!'' Arnold yelled. ''Knock if off!''