A$AP Rocky and Rihanna were in such high spirits after his court win that they joked about naming baby number three after his defense attorney.
Speaking with Extra after Tuesday’s verdict, lawyer Joe Tacopina shared what went down in court. The Harlem rapper had been facing two felony assault charges for allegedly shooting his ex-friend Terell Epheron (formerly ASAP Relli) with a semiautomatic weapon back in November 2021.
Rocky, whose real name is Rakim Mayers, could’ve gotten up to 24 years and turned down a deal for 180 days in jail plus a suspended sentence.
“I knew there were two counts, and you know, I’ve seen odd things happen in jury verdicts where they could split the verdict…” Tacopina told Extra’s Billy Bush about waiting for the verdict. “And so after the first ‘not guilty’, I’m laser-focused on the clerk to hear that second count.
And I look to my right, he’s gone. And I didn’t know. I didn’t know he left. He was just gone. I was like, I said to my partner, ‘Did he leave?’… And I see him on top of Rihanna … I couldn’t process quickly enough.”
Right after the verdict, Tacopina caught up with Rocky and RiRi, who’ve got two little ones, and they cracked a joke about naming their next kid after him.
“Rihanna and Rocky said to me in the courtroom yesterday, they grabbed me and they said, ‘Listen, our next baby is ASAP Joe,'” he shared.
Turns out Tacopina was already playing uncle before the trial kicked off – he even watched their oldest kid RZA, now 2, when Rihanna was getting ready for her Super Bowl show in 2023. She was pregnant with Riot Rose at the time, who’s now 17 months.
Tacopina spilled about how Rocky hit him up for some babysitting duty during Super Bowl LVII in Arizona.
“All of a sudden, Rocky said, ‘Can you just take care of a baby? I’m getting a pedicure,’ and I don’t even know what a pedicure is… ‘I’ll be done, like, an hour and a half,'” Tacopina recalled. “So I babysat for an hour and a half. There was a different type of relationship with him than with most clients.”
RiRi showed up to support her man throughout his month-long trial, even bringing their kids to court one day.
