Woman Pleads Not Guilty in Shooting at Rihanna's Home

A 35-year-old Florida woman pleaded not guilty Wednesday in Los Angeles to attempted murder and more than a dozen other charges stemming from a shooting outside the Beverly Crest home of Rihanna and A$AP Rocky.

Ivanna Ortiz is accused of opening fire on the couple’s property with what authorities described as an AR-15 style rifle. Rounds struck a gate and an Airstream travel trailer parked in the driveway. Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman said Rihanna and A$AP Rocky were inside that trailer when the shots were fired.

No injuries were reported. Ten people were at the residence at the time, including the couple’s three children.

The shooting happened around 1:30 p.m. on a Sunday afternoon. Witnesses told investigators they saw someone driving a Tesla back and forth near the property before gunfire erupted. Ortiz, who was alone in the vehicle, was arrested roughly three miles away during a traffic stop in Sherman Oaks. Police found her in possession of a 30-round magazine.

Prosecutors charged Ortiz with attempted murder, with special allegations of personal and intentional discharge of a firearm and use of a firearm. She also faces 10 counts of assault with a semiautomatic firearm, each carrying special firearms allegations, and three counts of shooting at an inhabited dwelling or vehicle. Prosecutors added a charge related to shots fired at a neighboring home as well. Special allegations, when attached to criminal charges, expose a defendant to steeper penalties at sentencing if convicted.

Bail was set at $1.875 million. Ortiz is due back in court April 8, when a judge will schedule a preliminary hearing to determine whether sufficient evidence exists to send the case to trial.

The Beverly Crest neighborhood sits in the hills above West Hollywood and Bel-Air, well outside Burbank, but the case carries weight across Los Angeles County for what it represents: a deliberate, daylight attack on a home where children were present. Prosecutors have said little publicly about motive, and investigators have not released details about any prior contact between Ortiz and the couple.

Rihanna, a nine-time Grammy winner, and A$AP Rocky have kept a relatively private home life despite their global profiles. The couple has three children together. News of the arrest first surfaced in early March, and Wednesday’s arraignment moved the case into its next phase.

The charge list Ortiz faces is extensive and carries serious exposure. Attempted murder alone, with the special allegations prosecutors attached, could mean a significantly enhanced sentence under California law. The 10 assault counts suggest prosecutors are accounting for each person present on the property at the time, a common prosecutorial approach in cases involving indiscriminate gunfire.

The preliminary hearing, expected to be scheduled when Ortiz returns to court April 8, will be the first substantive test of the evidence. At that stage, a judge decides whether the state has enough to require a defendant to stand trial. Given the physical evidence described, including rounds recovered from the gate and the trailer, and the circumstances of the traffic stop, that bar may not be difficult to clear.

What prosecutors will still need to establish more fully, likely at trial, is intent. Attempted murder requires proof that Ortiz specifically intended to kill someone. The special allegation of personal and intentional discharge strengthens that framing, but the defense will have room to contest it.

Ortiz has no connection to Burbank, and the shooting did not occur here. But readers who work in the entertainment industry know that the lives and safety of high-profile artists, their families, and the people around them are not abstract concerns. This case is a reminder that public visibility can come with serious and unpredictable risks, and that the legal system now has the task of sorting out what happened on a Sunday afternoon in the Beverly Crest hills.

The case continues to move through Los Angeles Superior Court.