A$AP Rocky couldn’t hide his excitement upon hearing the jury read his “not guilty”verdict.

Source: FRAZER HARRISON / Getty

Facing up to 24 years of jail time, A$AP Rocky was understandably ecstatic when he was found not guilty on Tuesday of firing a handgun at a former friend, A$AP Relli, on a Hollywood street in 2021.

After the jury cleared him of two felony counts of assault with a semiautomatic firearm, the rapper told the jury: “Thank y’all for saving my life.”

Before the trial began, Rocky turned down a prosecution offer of just six months in jail, along with probation and other conditions, if he would plead guilty to one count. Instead, Rocky insisted on his innocence and decided to gamble that a jury would feel the same, which ultimately ended up paying off.

When the verdict was read, the high emotions in the room were palpable as Rocky’s longtime love Rihanna cried and hugged the defense lawyers. She attended the trial multiple times and brought the couple’s two sons — 2-year-old RZA Athelston Mayers and 1-year-old Riot Rose Mayers — for some of the closing arguments.

Upon the verdict being read, the rapper immediately look behind him and ran to the gallery, hugging multiple friends and family members waiting in the stands. He also hugged his legal team, some of whom were wiping tears from their face.

Rocky’s lawyers and witnesses they called to the stand said Rocky had shot a prop gun that only fires blanks, which he had been carrying for security after taking it from a music video set months prior. He allegedly fired it as a warning because Relli was attacking another member of their crew. The jurors were told that despite three years passing since the incident, no one mentioned the prop gun to authorities until the day jury selection began.

They were also instructed that if they found that Rocky reasonably believed that he or one of the two friends with him that night were in imminent danger of injury, and that he used reasonable force, they could find the defendant not guilty, according to AP. It wasn’t immediately clear whether they reached the verdict because they believed he was in fact carrying a prop gun or that he acted in self-defense. They did not have to agree on their reasoning.

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