Rapper A$AP Rocky has chosen to invoke his Fifth Amendment right to silence and will not take the stand in his trial for two felony counts of assault with a semiautomatic firearm.
A$AP Rocky will not take the stand at his trial over two felony counts of assault with a semiautomatic firearm and the defense rested its case Tuesday without calling him to testify. The 36-year-old hip-hop star said “Absolutely, your honor” 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.
The prosecution may call one more rebuttal witness later Tuesday, and closing arguments at the three-week trial will be Thursday. Rocky’s attorney Joe Tacopina had said late Monday that either his client would take the stand Tuesday or the defense 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. He 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.During the trial, a key witness for the defense, Lou Levin, said he gave Rocky a starter pistol for security purposes. Levin testified that Rocky's house had been broken into by a stalker and others, and he felt it was necessary to provide some form of protection. Levin claimed the gun was only capable of firing blanks and was a nonlethal form of self-defense. He stated that he obtained the gun from a video shoot in the summer of 2021 and returned it to the co-director after the incident. The defense argued that Rocky fired the gun in self-defense during a scuffle with a former friend on a Hollywood street corner in 2021. However, the prosecution disputed this narrative, questioning Levin's account of the events and suggesting that the story was fabricated to explain the presence of ammunition found in Rocky’s house. Singer Rihanna, with whom he has two toddler sons, has shown up sporadically at the trial — most recently on Friday, when they left the courthouse together for the first time, walking arm-in-arm
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