Even though A$AP Rocky‘s felony shooting case has been put to bed, the rapper’s lawyer is still coming to the rapper and his family’s defense. In a new interview, Joe Tacopina addressed claims that Rihanna only brought the famous couple’s two young kids to court as a “ploy” to garner sympathy — something the attorney unilaterally shut down.
While breaking down the case in a conversation with The Breakfast Club posted Monday (Feb. 24), Tacopina reflected on Rocky’s final day in Los Angeles court last week, which ended with a jury of 12 finding him not guilty for two felony counts of assault with a firearm over a 2021 skirmish with former friend A$AP Relli. The Fenty mogul was present throughout the three-week trial to support her partner and, toward the end, brought 2-year-old RZA and 1-year-old Riot Rose with her to watch summations, about which Tacopina said Ri had only pure intentions.
“One day Rihanna brought the babies to court, and people were thinking it was a ploy, like some sort of maneuver to get the jury to feel sympathy,” he said on the show. “The jury’s not feeling sympathy; they know he has a wife and kids.”
“It was more because it was the last day of the trial … she brought them to court because that could’ve been the last time he’d seen his kids for a decade or more,” Tacopina continued. “That’s why she brought them. The prosecutor made a big deal of it in his summation, which I think was a fatal mistake.”
Indeed, the “F–kin’ Problems” artist had been facing up to 24 years in prison if convicted for the 2021 incident, during which Relli accused Rocky of shooting a gun at him twice near a Hollywood hotel. Rocky has always maintained his innocence, and in January, he turned down a plea deal that would’ve given him 180 days behind bars, three years of probation and a seven-year suspended sentence.
And while some may have accused Team Rocky of trying to drum up sympathy with his sons, Tacopina previously said that the rapper didn’t even want Rihanna in the courtroom, much less their children. “He didn’t want her there,” the attorney told press a few days ago. “He was very protective of her … But she called me one day and she was like, ‘Joe, wild horses aren’t going to keep me away, so let him know I’m coming and deal with him.’”
Rocky certainly looked happy to have the “Umbrella” singer there on the last day of court, though. As soon as his not guilty verdict was read, he bolted over to where Ri was sitting — clearing a courthouse railing in the process — and jumped into her arms.
Watch Tacopina reflect on having Rocky’s family in court below.
