A$AP Rocky has lots to celebrate. He was a co-chair of the Met Gala in Manhattan Monday night, where he and Rihanna announced they’re expecting their third child together. He’s also starring in the new Spike Lee movie Highest 2 Lowest opposite Denzel Washington. And in a courtroom in downtown Los Angeles on Monday, a judge granted his petition to seal his criminal case records after he was found not guilty of charges he brandished and fired a semiautomatic pistol at a former friend.
Rocky’s high-powered lawyer Joe Tacopina confirms to Rolling Stone that the criminal case was sealed in response to a petition from the defense filed shortly after the Feb. 18, acquittal. “Suffice it to say that yesterday was a very good day for the family as the sealing came on a day in which other great news was announced,” Tacopina says, referring to both the new ruling and the pregnancy reveal.
The sealing means Rocky’s criminal case is no longer searchable on the court’s public website. Rocky’s April 2022 arrest is also no longer visible on the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department website. Rocky, born Rakim Mayers, has a separate “motion for DNA expungement” set for October, according to a court scheduling service.
Mayers, 36, was acquitted after a three-week trial during which his accuser, former friend Terell “A$AP Relli” Ephron, testified. Ephron claimed Mayers threatened him with a Glock 43 near a parking garage outside the W Hollywood hotel on Nov. 6, 2021 and then opened fire on him at a nearby street corner, grazing his left hand amid a verbal dispute.
Throughout the trial, Tacopina attacked Ephron’s credibility and said Mayers was only carrying a prop gun that night, as a deterrent. He said the prop gun was procured from the set of the “D.M.B” music video Mayers shot with Rihanna in July 2021.
As soon as the first of two “not guilty” verdicts was announced on Feb. 18, Rocky dove over a short gallery wall, directly into Rihanna’s lap. He hugged her as she embraced him with her eyes closed. About a dozen supporters erupted in loud cheers. The rapper then hugged his lawyers and addressed the jurors as they departed, telling them, “Thank you all for saving my life. Thank you. Thank you for making the right decision.”
A juror who spoke with Rolling Stone after the acquittal said not all jurors were on the same page when they took their first vote in the deliberating room that morning. But it didn’t take long once they focused on issues with the evidence, she said. “We spent a lot of time discussing the concept of reasonable doubt, and the chain of evidence that was provided to us, setting aside personalities,” the juror, who asked to remain anonymous, told Rolling Stone. “It was fundamentally about reasonable doubt.”
Ephron is still pursuing an assault and battery lawsuit against Mayers involving the same incident. The next hearing in the civil case is set for May 22. A non-jury trial is set for Jan. 12, 2026.
