Erika Jayne's police officer son testifies in A$AP Rocky gun trial as first witness

Erika Jayne's son, LAPD officer Thomas 'Tommy' Zizzo, testified in Los Angeles on Friday in the gun trial of rapper A$AP Rocky.

Zizzo, 32, who is the son of the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star and her first husband Thomas Zizzo Sr., was the first witness called in the highly publicized case, per TMZ.

Rocky, father of Rihanna's two children, faces two felony charges of assault with a firearm for allegedly shooting a friend in 2021, with up to 24 years in prison if convicted.

Zizzo, one of the officers who responded to the alleged shooting, testified about his observations upon arriving at the scene, according to the outlet.

This marks his first major public appearance, as he has never appeared on RHOBH and was only briefly featured in a 2020 post on Erika's social media.

Shortly after Zizzo's birth, Erika divorced her first husband and later married ex-lawyer Tom Girardi, though they separated in 2020.

Zizzo's appearance in court comes after A$AP Rocky broke his silence at the end of the first week of his trial. 

As the rapper strode to a waiting SUV to whisk him away, when asked if he had a message for his supporters Rocky confidently responded: 'I love you', before shutting the door behind him. 

Rocky managed to avoid the crowd of reporters and most of the paparazzi by slipping out a side door, TMZ reported. 

The rapper previously rejected a plea deal that would have resulted in six months of jail time and now faced up to 24 years in prison if convicted.

But before jurors were even seated Friday on the first day of testimony at Rapper A$AP Rocky's trial, prosecutors dropped a bombshell by revealing a ballistics report that could link the hip hop star to the gun he's accused of firing at a former friend.

The existence of the never-before-seen 28-page document prompted an angry outburst from lead defense attorney Joe Tacopina who accused Los Angeles deputy District Attorneys of ambushing him and telling Judge Mark Arnold: 'This report should be suppressed without question.'

He continued: 'There is no way to proceed in this case if this report is admitted into evidence… I have never been so upset in a courtroom in my whole career.'

The 36-year-old hip-hop star and fashion icon showed up Friday at criminal court in downtown LA wearing a light gray tailored suit, white shirt, blue tie and shiny black dress shoes.

On his way into the courtroom he shoved reporters and videographers out of the way as he made his way into the building. 

Rocky - father to superstar Rihanna's two young children - has pleaded not guilty to two felony charges of assaulting his former friend and bandmate Terell Ephron with a semiautomatic firearm in November 2021 and he's facing up to 24 years in prison if convicted of both.

He was arrested in April 2022 at LAX airport as he stepped off a private plane from Barbados where he had been on vacation with multiple Grammy-winner Rihanna, also 36. He has been free on bail of $550,000 since his arrest.

His trial - which is expected to last at least two weeks - began on Tuesday with selection of jurors and by Thursday evening, a jury of seven women and five men - plus four alternates - was in place. 

Before the jury was seated Friday, Deputy District Attorney (DDA) John Lewin told the court that it was only on Thursday night they became aware of a ballistics report which found that two spent shell casings found at the scene of the shooting could have come from the 9mm Glock 43 gun Rocky is accused of using.

And he insisted that he and DDA Paul Przelomiec did not deliberately withhold it from defense counsel.

But Tacopina told the court that he found it hard to believe that LA Police detectives 'did not bring this to the DA's attention before now'.

And he urged Judge Arnold that if the report is admitted into evidence, the trial should be suspended until the defense has had time to have its own experts examine it.

The judge refused to exclude the report, telling Tacopina that he did not believe 'there was any nefarious conduct' by prosecutors.

'It's not a smoking gun - it does not mean that your client is guilty,' he added.

But he ordered prosecutors not to mention the report in their opening statement to jurors and he told defense lawyers to urgently find a ballistics expert of their own - at the court's cost - to examine the report as quickly as possible.

After the jury finally was led into court Friday, DDA Przelomiec began the prosecution's opening statement, telling the court that Rocky and Ephron - another rapper going by the name A$AP Relli - had been friends since they were teenagers in a group called ASAP Mob that started in New York in 2005.

Their relationship deteriorated over the years and bye the time of the alleged shooting on November 6 2021, 'there was a lot of tension between them.'

After exchanging some hostile texts the two agreed to meet near the W Hotel in Hollywood where Rocky showed up with two other rap friends ASAP 12vvt and A$AP Illz.

Rocky and Ephron got into a shoving match and in court, 'Mr. Mayers pointed a gun at Mr Ephron's chest, threatened him and said 'I'm going to kill you.,' said Pzelomiec as he showed the court a surveillance video of the two confronting each other and Rocky holding a gun which he shoves into his waistband.

When Rocky and the two others walked away, Ephron followed 'yelling and screaming' at his ex buddy and about another block later they get into another altercation.

Pzelomiec showed another, very grainy video taken from a different surveillance camera, in which two figures he said were Rocky and Ephron can be seen and two gunshots can be heard on the audio.

The prosecutor then showed the court photos of Ephron's bloody hand where he said he was hit by bullets fired in the shooting.

Cops alerted by 911 calls didn't find any any victim or evidence at the scene but, said Pzelomiec, Ephron returned to the scene and found two spent shell casings which he handed int to the police two days later.

Przelomiec added that when police searched Rocky's home in April 2022, in his bedroom closet they found a magazine for a semi-automatic pistol loaded with six live rounds. But no gun was found.

He poured scorn on the defense attorneys claim that the weapon involved in the shooting was a 'prop gun or starter pistol.'

'Don't leave you common sense at the door,' he told jurors.

In his opening statement to jurors, Rocky's lawyer, Joe Tacopina painted Terell 'A$AP Relli' Ephron as a 'parasite' motivated by a civil lawsuit he's brought against Rocky in which he's asking for $30 million.

'He is a proven criminal and perjurer. He lies about everything in this case,' the attorney told the court. 'The evidence is going to make clear that he is trying to extort money from Rocky.'

Tacopina said Relli was 'resentful and angry' over the greater musical success of his one-time teenage pal and band-mate Rocky 'and he embarked on a dangerous course of action.'

Hearing that Rocky didn't pay for the funeral of a mutual friend, 'Relli was furious - he threatened physical violence against Rocky,' he went on.

'But he was wrong - Rocky did pay for the funeral,' added Tacopina who said that before his encounter with Rocky in Hollywood on November 6 2021, Relli 'was angry and it was he who was the one looking for a fight that night.'

Tacopina slammed the prosecution's 'exagerated' claims from a video that Ricky stuck a gun in Relli's stomach and pointed it at his chest, saying there was 'no video evidence' of that happening.

And he described Relli as the 'aggressor,' saying the video showed Relli was pulling Rocky, Rocky was not pushing Relli.'

'The object Relli claims was a firearm was nothing more than a prop gun …used in movies and music videos..and to scare off attackers.'

Tacopina said that Rocky had been the victim of attacks in the past - one in which his face was slashed - and his security advised him to carry the prop gun, which had been used several months earlier in a music video Rocy made with Rihanna.

'Rocky is licensed by the state of California to carry a firearm but he did not want to carry a real gun.'

After their first encounter where Rocky was caught on camera with a gun in his hand and waistband, he, A$AP 12vvy and A$AP Illz walked away from Relli, 'trying to get away from him.'

'Relli followed them, pursuing them,' said Tacopina who told the jury that Relli's 'anger and hatred boiled over' and he started attacking and punching Illz, who is much smaller.

'He was pummeling Ills and Rocky used the prop gun to defend him. He fired the prop gun twice, hoping to scare off Relli.'

Later that night, said Tacopina, Relli 'hatched his extortion plan by attempting to fabricate evidence.'

Relli returned to the scene of the shooting an hour later and found two spent shell casings which he didn't hand in to the police till two days later, said the lawyer - who threw doubt on Relli's story saying 'seven police officers came to the scene (before Reli returned that night) and found nothing.

'There were no shell casings. No bullet fragments,.no damage to cars, no broken windows. There was no evidence of a real gun being fired.

'The evidence will show that Reli fabricated those shell casings to extort Rocky. There was no real gun.'

As for the prosecution's photos of blood on Relli's hand, Tacopina said that was most likely caused by scraping his knuckles on the pavement.

'$30 million for a knucklehead scrape,' he sniffed. 'Those scrapes are no more proof of a real gunshot than those shell casing are.'

Tacopina said that Relli only handed the shell casings to cops two days later because the attorney he asked to handle his lawsuit against Rocky would only take the case if he reported the assault to the police.

Th defense attorney also said that the shell casings found at the scene by Relli were a different brand from the ones in the magazine of live rounds found during a search of Rocky's home.