A$AP Rocky won’t testify in gun trial

(AP):

A$AP Rocky will not take the stand at his trial over two felony counts of assault with a semi-automatic firearm, as the defence rested its case on Tuesday without calling him to testify.

The 36-year-old hip-hop star said "Absolutely, Your Honour" when asked by Superior Court Judge Mark Arnold if he had discussed the issue with his lawyers, and said he would invoke his Fifth Amendment right to silence.

"I want my right to not testify," Rocky said. Closing arguments at the three-week trial will begin on Thursday.

Rocky's attorney Joe Tacopina had said late on Monday that either his client would take the stand Tuesday or the defence would rest its case, and an attorney for the prosecution said his team would prepare for Rocky's possible testimony. Tacopina said before the trial that Rocky was "eager to tell his story" and would "love the opportunity to do so", but subjecting a defendant to a difficult cross-examination is often a major gamble in criminal cases. Rocky faces up to 24 years in prison if convicted, after turning down a pre-trial plea deal that could have led to just 180 days in jail.

He would most likely have faced a long and combative cross-examination from Deputy District Attorney John Lewin. In his most famous case, Lewin kept real estate heir Robert Durst on the stand for nine days of relentless questioning before he was convicted of murder.

A Grammy-nominated music star, fashion mogul and actor, Rocky is the long-time partner of singing superstar Rihanna, with whom he has two toddler sons. She has shown up sporadically at the trial - most recently last Friday, when they left the courthouse together for the first time, walking arm-in-arm.

Rocky, whose given name is Rakim Mayers, would likely have testified that a gun he fired twice - in a scuffle with a former friend on a Hollywood street corner in 2021 - was a starter pistol that only fired blanks, and that he carried it for security.

On Monday, his tour manager became the second witness from Rocky's inner circle to testify that he carried the phony gun. Lou Levin said he told the rapper it made sense to carry it after Rocky's house had been broken into by a stalker and others.

"Security and I thought it would be a good idea, because of the prior violence," Levin said. "It's just a non-lethal form of self-defence."

Levin said he got the gun from a video shoot in the summer of 2021, about three months before the incident that led to the charges. He told the jury that he returned the phony gun to the music video's co-director, who no longer had it when Levin asked about it after Rocky's arrest. The defence said it does not have the starter pistol now. Authorities also did not recover the pistol they allege Rocky used.

Levin testified that an ammunition magazine found in Rocky's house by officers serving a search warrant actually belonged to him.

Lewin, the prosecutor, said "you had to come up with a story" to explain the magazine. He later called every aspect of the story "a lie".

"I didn't have to come up with a story -- it's the truth," Levin said.