Day one of rapper ASAP Rocky’s assault trial served as a reminder of just how small Hollywood can be.
Thomas Zizzo Jr., a Los Angeles police officer and son of Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Erika Jayne, took the stand on Friday, January 14, during day one of the Grammy award-winning rapper’s trial, TMZ reported.
Rocky, 36, faces two counts of assault with a semiautomatic firearm related to a 2021 shooting incident in Hollywood. He is accused of firing two or three shots at Terell Ephron, a childhood friend. According to the Associated Press, Ephron claims the alleged shots “grazed his knuckles. The rapper has pleaded not guilty.
The rapper faces up to 24 years in prison if convicted.
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Zizzo was one of the first LAPD officers to respond to the scene of the alleged 2021 incident, TMZ reports. While on the stand, the officer reportedly “testified about what he saw at the scene when he arrived.”
Zizzo has remained out of the public spotlight despite his mother’s reality television fame — he has never appeared on RHOBH and is not featured on his mom Jayne’s social media pages. As TMZ notes, his absence from her social media accounts deliberate — she says she does not post about her son “out of respect for his privacy as a police officer.”
Jayne shares her son with ex-husband Thomas Zizzo. The pair divorced shortly after their son was born in 1992. In 2022, Jayne spoke out about her close bond with her son and ex-husband following the legal and financial struggles she faced in the wake of her separation from Tom Girardi in November 2020.
“People don’t understand this, but we’re actually pretty tight,” Jayne said of her ex-husband, Thomas, and her son at the time. “They have been very supportive of me, and I’m very grateful.
She went on to say that the “silver lining” of her separation from Girardi was how it strengthened her relationship with her son.
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“My son and I, we’ve really come together,” she explained. “He’ll be 30 in June. Jesus. I just remember walking around here in New York being pregnant with him, but he’ll be 30. And so asking him what he thinks about things, you know, you get this adult perspective, and it’s really nice.”
While Jayne’s son was present in court on Friday, Rocky’s partner, Rihanna, was notably absent on Thursday, January 23, during jury selection. According to the Associated Press, however, she was the topic of multiple questions.
“What if Rihanna comes here to court, is it going to be hard for you to look over there and see the defendant’s family and deliver a guilty verdict?” Deputy District Attorney John Lewin asked one prospective juror.
“Yes,” the woman reportedly answered.
Rocky and Rihanna have been together since 2019 and share two sons: RZA and Riot Rose.
