Rihanna made a shock appearance in court Wednesday to support her boyfriend A$AP Rocky as he faces up to 24 years in prison.
The pop megastar reportedly snuck into a downtown Los Angeles courtroom early in the morning through a concealed entrance.
Her rapper partner, real name Rakim Mayer, who is facing decades behind bars for weapons offenses, arrived with his family and entourage earlier in the day without Rihanna.
A source told the US Sun: ‘Rihanna arrived around 9:49 a.m. in a blacked-out SUV and met with two security guards who tried to throw everyone off and went down a side passageway out of the court.
‘They jumped in her car in the underground parking lot, and she snuck into the court in a secret elevator and never walked the main corridor.’
Rihanna reportedly sat beside Mayer’s mother and sister in the front row of the courtroom, with several security guards sat around them.
Mayer faces prison time for allegedly shooting his former friend A$AP Relli in 2021, and is charged with two counts of assault with a semiautomatic weapon. He has pleaded not guilty.
Rihanna, who shares two children with Mayer, has stuck beside the rapper since his first arrest on gun charges in April 2022, when the pair were returning to Los Angeles Airport from a Barbados vacation.
Prosecutors allege that on November 6, 2021, Mayer pointed a gun at his former friend during a confrontation, shooting at him and leaving him with minor injuries.
A$AP Relli, real name Terell Ephron, testified against Mayer at an earlier hearing, claiming that the rapper held a gun to his stomach and said ‘I’ll kill you right now’ before firing at least four shots.
It is alleged that one of the shots hit Ephron’s hand, but he only reported the shooting the following day when a warrant was issued for Mayers’ arrest.
Two 9mm shell casings were recovered by Ephron after he returned to the scene of the alleged shooting, however police say the weapon Mayer allegedly fired has never been found.
On Tuesday, Mayer ‘respectfully declined’ a plea deal that would have seen him serve just six months in jail alongside a seven-year suspended sentence and three years of probation.
Ephron was a former friend and collaborator of Mayer, after the pair became friends as teenagers while attending high school in New York together.
They were members of the A$AP collective, a group of students who made music and created art together.
The A$AP (Always Strive And Prosper) Mob was formed in 2005, but Rocky only joined in 2007.