A$AP Rocky’s Star Defense Witness Says Alleged Victim Taunted, ‘Shoot That Fake-Ass Gun’
A$AP Rocky kicked off the long-awaited defense in his gun assault trial Friday with a star witness who says the alleged victim in the case, fellow A$AP Mob member A$AP Relli, was the repeated aggressor during the November 2021 shooting at the center of the case.
Harlem rapper A$AP Twelvyy, born Jamel Phillips, also testified under oath that both he and Relli, born Terell Ephron, were fully aware that the gun Rocky fired during the street-level scuffle just a block south of Hollywood Boulevard was a starter pistol that didn’t fire live ammunition.
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“[Relli] told him to shoot that fake-ass gun,” Phillips testified, giving his version of what happened after the parties met outside the W Hotel, had an initial argument and Rocky was caught on surveillance video with a black gun in his hand. During his own trial testimony before prosecutors officially rested their case Friday morning, Ephron claimed he never accused Rocky of having a fake gun. Ephron repeatedly said he believed the gun was real and that he felt a hot sensation on his hand as soon as the first shot rang out. He claims he was grazed by a real bullet and has a photograph taken that night showing a linear injury under the knuckles of his left hand.
Appearing on the ninth day of trial, Phillips said he went into the Nov. 6, 2021 incident with the understanding that Rocky, born Rakim Mayers, carried a starter pistol as a deterrent because he was the victim of prior crimes, including a stabbing in a New York club, home invasions and stalking. Phillips said he saw Mayers with a starter pistol on three prior occasions. The first time was during the video shoot for Mayers’ song “D.M.B.,” he testified. The video, which heavily features Rihanna, was shot in the Bronx in July 2021. He said the second time was in Harlem in September 2021, when he and Mayers met up to get some food, and the last time was in Los Angeles, just days before the incident, he told jurors.
In testimony that could prove critical, Phillips gave a visceral account of the moment he, Mayers and another friend named Illijah Ulanger, also known as A$AP Illz, exited their chauffeured vehicle to meet up with Ephron the night of the alleged shooting. Phillips said he was in town to perform with Mayers at ComplexCon that week to celebrate the 10-year anniversary of Mayers’ debut mix tape Live. Love. ASAP, which featured Phillips and other members of their collective. According to Phillips, he spotted Ephron walking down the hill from Hollywood Blvd. and approaching them “with a little extra momentum.”
“Relli just grabbed Rocky. As soon as he seen him, he just grabbed him,” Phillips testified. He said Ephron was shaking Mayers and trying to lift him off the ground by his hoodie. He said the lifting caused Mayers’ pants to fall, leading Mayers to grab what he described as the “prop gun” in his waistband. Under questioning by defense lawyer Joe Tacopina, Phillips said Mayers grabbed the gun with his left hand, which was notable because Mayers is right-handed.
Phillips said both he and Ulanger got in the middle of the initial argument and that Mayers walked away first. He claimed Ephron followed them around the corner, taunting them. Calling Ephron’s demeanor “volatile,” he said Ephron berated them, calling Ulanger a “crackhead” and commenting that Phillips lived in “the projects.” He said the outburst left him feeling confused and threatened.
According to Phillips, Ephron turned physical again when they got to the intersection of Selma Ave. and Vista Del Mar Ave. He said as Ulanger was trying to calm Ephron down, Ephron punched Ulanger two times. He said after the second hit, Mayers fired the first shot from the starter pistol, aiming it toward the ground. Phillips said he believes Mayers wanted “to scare Relli off,” and that the rapper fired a second shot before Phillips urged him to leave the scene because the shots and car alarms were sure to attract attention.
Also on Friday, Mayers’ partner, Rihanna, made her fifth appearance at the trial, appearing in the hallway and giving Mayers a long hug before the couple walked back into the courtroom with their arms around each other for the rest of the afternoon session.
In yet another dramatic moment, Tacopina walked Philips through the blurry surveillance video of the alleged shooting. This time, the two loud gunshot sounds taken from a different camera in the area and synchronized with the visual of the incident started a second later than they did in the video prosecutors used. The defense said it followed the same methodology prosecutors used to overlap the audio, and that their version was the more accurate one. The one-second delay could prove pivotal. In prosecutors’ version, the first shot happens before the figure identified as Ephron appears to come in contact with Ulanger. In his testimony, Ephron said he grabbed Ulanger to use him as a “human shield.” In the defense version shown Friday, the first shot comes after Ephron’s figure collides with Ulanger. Phillips said the defense version aligned with his memory, meaning Mayers only fired his first “warning shot” after Ephron allegedly punched Ulanger.
Mayers, 36, has pleaded not guilty to two counts of assault with a semi-automatic firearm. The first count involves the initial clash across the street from the W Hotel. The second count is for the alleged shooting. In his opening statement, Tacopina said the evidence would show Mayers carried the starter pistol as a “prop gun” on the advice of his security. Another defense witness is expected to testify that he also knew Mayers carried a starter pistol as a deterrent. If convicted as charged, Mayers is facing a maximum possible sentence of 24 years. Prosecutors previously told the court they would recommend 10 to 12 years.
During his five days in the witness box, Ephron told jurors he and Mayers agreed to meet that night amid a fraying in their relationship. He claimed Mayers walked up angrily, grabbed him by his collar, pulled out a black gun and threatened to kill him as they argued near the parking garage. Ephron said Mayers put the gun back into his waistband to avoid attracting attention and was walking away when Ephron allegedly noticed Phillips had a pocketknife. (Phillips denied Friday that he had a knife.)
Ephron admitted he started to follow Mayers, Phillips and Ulanger but said it was only to get some grievances off his chest. Recounting his version of the incident, Ephron said he was talking to all three men when he accused Mayers of not doing enough for the friends who helped him early on in his career. “I’m just verbally expressing my feelings. I just had a gun pulled on me,” Ephron testified. “I’m feeling a lot of different things, but at the moment, I was just mad.”
Police were called to the scene by a 911 caller who watched the incident from a apartment balcony. The four men were already gone when seven officers searched the area and found no shell casings or evidence of a shooting. Ephron says he returned later that night and immediately recovered two 9mm Luger spent cartridges. He personally collected the casings and held on to them for two days before handing them over to police. Police witnesses testified the casings had no fingerprints on them but were consistent with having been fired from an after-market slide known to be used with a subset of guns that includes the Glock 43. During a search of Mayers’ house in April 2022, a Glock-brand 9mm magazine was found in his bedroom closet. Tacopina has said the magazine belonged to someone else, but either way, it was loaded with a different brand of bullets when it was recovered.
In his opening, Tacopina said the case was “all about a money grab.” He said Ephron wanted to extort his client and had filed a $30 million civil lawsuit. Ephron was adamant during his testimony that he was telling the truth.
In a surprising moment on Monday, Ephron told the jury that while he initially testified that video showing him firing a semiautomatic weapon at a gun range just two weeks before the Nov. 6 shooting was definitely not filmed in Los Angeles, he did some “homework” over the weekend and realized it was from the Los Angeles Gun Club. He said he’d forgotten he was in the area for a business meeting that week. The revelation could help bolster the defense claim that Ephron fabricated the evidence.
Under questioning by deputy district attorney Paul Przelomiec, Ephron told jurors he didn’t plant anything. He said that for two years after the alleged shooting, he consistently told police he believed Mayers had fired three or four times. He said it wasn’t until a probable-cause hearing in November 2023 that he first heard audio from the incident depicting only two loud pops. “If I planted, [I] would have brought exactly what I said,” he testified, meaning he would have planted three or four casings. He only found two, he testified. “I never planted nothing,” he said on the witness stand.
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