The trial of South Bronx rapper Remy Ma started yesterday (March 10) in a Manhattan court room.
Remy Ma, born Remy Smith, is charged with assault and witness intimidation, after she allegedly shot her childhood friend in a dispute over $3,000 that was missing from her purse.
According to Reuters, Remy Ma’s lawyer Ivan Fisher portrayed the shooting as an accident, after a pistol the rapper was carrying went off and struck Makeda Barnes-Joseph twice in the abdomen.
Fisher labeled Barnes-Joseph, who is suing Sure Shot Recordings and Universal Music Group for $80 million dollars, a celebrity groupie who is attempting to cash in on Remy Ma’s fame.
Prosecuting lawyer and Assistant District Attorney Jason Berland discounted Fisher’s account of the assault.
He claims Remy Ma climbed into Barnes-Joseph’s vehicle, argued with her over the purse and then shot the rapper twice, intentionally.
Berland also labeled the rapper irresponsible for fleeing the scene and crashing into a parked car a few blocks later.
Berland then accused Remy Ma and her boyfriend Papoose of masterminding the beating of two men at The Player’s Club in the Bronx.
One of the men, who sustained severe injuries, was the boyfriend of a woman who witnessed the assault and was planning to testify against Remy Ma.