A$AP Rocky’s lawyer has revealed that Rihanna’s decision to bring her sons, RZA and Riot, to court wasn’t about garnering sympathy for Rocky.
On February 18, a jury acquitted Rocky of two felony assault charges after he was accused of firing a handgun at former friend and A$AP Mob member A$AP Relli during a 2021 altercation.
The business mogul brought her sons, RZA and Riot, to court in downtown Los Angeles to support Rocky as his trial neared its conclusion.
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Rocky’s lawyer, Joe Tacopina, later addressed her decision in a February 24 interview on The Breakfast Club.
“People were thinking it was a ploy, like some sort of maneuver to get the jury to feel sympathy,” he said, according to PEOPLE. “The jury’s not feeling sympathy. They know he has a wife and kids.”
Tacopina explained Rihanna’s choice to bring the kids “was more because it was the last day of the trial.”
“She brought them to court because that could’ve been the last time he’d seen his kids for a decade or more,” he told the radio show. “That’s why she brought them. The prosecutor made a big deal of it in his summation, which I think was a fatal mistake.”
Rihanna attended the trial with their sons, RZA and Riot, arriving during the prosecution’s opening statements. During a break, the couple stepped into the hallway, each holding one of their children. Before returning to court, they shared a brief family moment, with Rocky handing the child he was holding back to Rihanna.
Rihanna then told RZA and Riot to “wish Daddy good luck.” Rocky gave her and the babies a kiss, and she then left through a back door. Following the break, the Savage X Fenty founder returned to the courtroom solo.
After the first verdict was read, Rocky quickly jumped over the stand to hug his mother and sister as well as Rihanna. “Thank y’all for saving my life,” he told the jury. “Thank y’all for making the right decision.”
In an interview with Extra on Feb. 19, Tacopina joked the famous couple promised to name their next baby after him. “They grabbed me and they said, ‘Listen, our next baby [is] A$AP Joe,'” he recalled. “I said, ‘I’m gonna hold you to that!'”
