A$AP Rocky was full of emotions in the moment a jury ruled he was not guilty in his 2021 felony shooting case Tuesday (Feb. 18). So much so, he leapt straight over a courtroom barrier into the arms of the first person he wanted to celebrate with: Rihanna.
In a news clip from a live broadcast of the final day of the rapper’s three-week trial in Los Angeles, Rocky starts out looking stoic in a pinstripe suit as he waits for his verdict — “We, the jury … find the defendant, Rakim Mayers, not guilty …” — to be read out. As soon as he hears the beginnings of the words “not guilty,” the musician ecstatically whips around and, after giving one of his attorneys a quick passing hug, barrels toward where Ri is sitting and dives over a railing into her arms.
Cameras captured the Fenty mogul then wrapping her arms tightly around her partner — with whom she shares two young sons — and appearing to get emotional while rocking him back and forth. Shortly afterward, she wrote on Instagram Stories, “THE GLORY BELONGS TO GOD AND GOD ALONE! THANKFUL, HUMBLED BY HIS MERCY!”
Rocky is then ushered back to his position on the courtroom floor to hear the rest of the jury’s statement, which came after about three hours of deliberations. The “F–kin’ Problems” artist had been facing up to 24 years of prison time if the ruling had gone in the opposite direction, having spent the past three weeks defending himself against two felony counts of assault with a firearm over a November 2021 incident in which he was accused of firing a gun twice at former friend A$AP Relli in Hollywood.
The Harlem native and his team have maintained that the gun used in the incident was a prop weapon throughout the courtroom proceedings, at which Ri was often present to support Rocky. In January, the “Sundress” musician turned down a plea deal that would’ve put him behind bars for 180 days, maintaining his innocence.
Watch Rocky leap into Ri’s arms after hearing his not guilty verdict below.
