A$AP Rocky pleads not guilty to shooting at old friend

A$AP Rocky pleaded not guilty on Monday to shooting at a former friend in Los Angeles more than two years ago.

The 35-year-old star is accused of firing two shots at Terell Ephron in a Hollywood parking garage on Nov. 6, 2021. Ephron was a member of the A$AP Mob and rapped under the name A$AP Relli.

Defense lawyers for Rocky, whose legal name is Rakim Mayers, were confident after Monday’s hearing about prevailing in the case.

“Common sense is going to prevail,” attorney Joe Tacopina told reporters outside the courtroom, according to Rolling Stone. “The evidence we have that they don’t know about is going to be devastating — devastating.”

According to police and Ephron, the two A$AP Mob members had beef stemming from a funeral. Ephron accused Rocky of promising to pay for the services, then failing to come through.

“You so f–king fake it’s sad,” Ephron texted Rocky, according to texts shown at a preliminary hearing in November. Ephron said he later learned that Rocky paid for the funeral as promised.

Surveillance video showed a group of men including Rocky and Ephron involved in a confrontation outside the W Hotel. That video, played at the preliminary hearing, appears to show Rocky holding a gun.

A second video captured the sound of two gunshots at the same time Ephron said they were fired. It also shows Rocky quickly rounding a corner before slowing down, according to police.

Ephron later gave police two bullet casings, which he said came from the shooting. Cops never recovered a weapon, and there were no fingerprints on the bullet casings.

Rocky was arrested in the case in April 2022, and he entered an initial not guilty plea that August. The case was delayed until November of last year, when a preliminary hearing was held and the judge sent the case to trial.