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Sean 'Diddy' Combs trial: Jury reaches verdict on some charges

Sean 'Diddy' Combs trial: Jury reaches verdict on some charges

RNZ Newsa day ago
Sean 'Diddy' Combs listens during opening statements on the first day of trial in Manhattan federal court on 12 May, 2025, in New York.
Photo:
Supplied / Elizabeth Williams
Jurors in Sean 'Diddy' Combs' saay they have reached a verdict on some charges.
Combs has pleaded not guilty to five counts including racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution. If convicted, he could face a sentence of up to life in prison.
The jury has sent a note saying they had reached a verdict on four counts but were unable to reach a verdict on another "as we have jurors with unpersuadable opinions on both sides."
Both the prosecution and defence want the judge to push the jury to continue deliberating.
Sean "Diddy" Combs' attorney Marc Agnifilo said the defence would like the judge to bring out the jury to instruct them to continue deliberating rather than sending them a note.
They were going to work on the wording of that instruction.
Prosecutors have said Combs and his inner circle used threats, violence
, drugs, bribery, arson, kidnapping and lies to coerce former girlfriend Cassie Ventura and another woman into extended sexual performances known as "Freak Offs" and to protect the music mogul's reputation.
More to come ...
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Takeaways from the verdict in Sean ‘Diddy' Combs' federal sex trafficking trial
Takeaways from the verdict in Sean ‘Diddy' Combs' federal sex trafficking trial

RNZ News

time5 hours ago

  • RNZ News

Takeaways from the verdict in Sean ‘Diddy' Combs' federal sex trafficking trial

By Dakin Andone, Lauren del Valle and Nicki Brown , CNN Sean "Diddy" Combs is no longer facing the prospect of a life sentence. (File pic) Photo: Angela Weiss / AFP The jury in the federal sex trafficking trial of Sean "Diddy" Combs returned its verdict on Wednesday (US time), clearing the hip-hop mogul of the most serious charges, though he was convicted on two lesser charges of transportation to engage in prostitution . The verdict is, to some extent, a win for Combs, who will avoid the worst case scenario: If he had been convicted of the more serious charges of racketeering conspiracy or sex trafficking, Combs could have faced up to life in prison. Instead, he faces a maximum sentence of 20 years - though it's unlikely he'll serve a sentence that long, and he could even be sentenced to the time he's served since his arrest in September 2024. "It's a bit of a paradox, because here we have Sean Combs, who has just been convicted of two federal felonies," said CNN senior legal analyst Elie Honig. "And for all practical purposes, he has won. He has defeated the Southern District of New York." Prosecutors accused Combs of leading a criminal enterprise made up of some of his closest employees, alleging they used threats, violence, forced labour, bribery and other crimes to force Casandra "Cassie" Ventura and another woman, "Jane," to engage in drug-fuelled sex acts with male escorts called "Freak Offs" or "hotel nights." Combs pleaded not guilty to one count of racketeering conspiracy, two counts of sex trafficking and two counts of transportation for prostitution. His lawyers argued the sex acts were consensual and merely preferences , while trying to undermine the hip-hop mogul's accusers by contending they were trying to gain a monetary benefit from Combs. Here are takeaways from the jury's verdict. Combs and his defence team surely hoped he would be acquitted on all counts. But the verdict on Wednesday is something of a boon for a star defendant who has seen his reputation diminish in the face of repeated accusations of wrongdoing. His acquittals on racketeering conspiracy and two counts of sex trafficking are striking when looked at within the context of the defendant's fall from grace: Two years ago, Ventura filed a lawsuit claiming Combs had raped and physically and emotionally abused her. Combs agreed to settle the lawsuit a day later; his attorney said it was "in no way an admission of wrongdoing." Ventura's lawsuit was only the beginning: More accusers came forward with allegations against Combs, and in March 2024, heavily armed federal agents searched the producer's homes in Los Angeles and Florida. Two months later, CNN published hotel surveillance video captured eight years earlier showing Combs physically assaulting Ventura in an elevator lobby at a Los Angeles hotel - footage included as part of the prosecution's case for sex trafficking as to Ventura. Now, while the verdict is mixed, Combs can claim some vindication on being cleared of the most serious charges. "Regardless of what anyone thinks of Sean Combs … the simple fact is, as of right now, in the eyes of the law, he has not been convicted of a crime of violence," said CNN legal analyst Elliot Williams. "He has not been convicted of the far more serious, life-eligible crimes that he was charged with." The verdict shows prosecutors failed to prove racketeering conspiracy and while the jury's reasoning is not known, experts told CNN prior to deliberations that prosecutors' greatest challenge would be securing a conviction on this charge. That jurors found Combs not guilty shows they were unconvinced, either of the existence of a so-called "enterprise" - a key piece of any racketeering case - or that he and others committed the underlying crimes that would support a conviction. The charge comes from the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organisations Act, or RICO, which was passed by Congress in 1970 to prosecute organised crime. Racketeering is not a single, specific crime, but a framework for prosecuting many different crimes; in a RICO case, these are called "predicate acts". -CNN

Bryan Kohberger admits to Idaho student murders
Bryan Kohberger admits to Idaho student murders

RNZ News

time5 hours ago

  • RNZ News

Bryan Kohberger admits to Idaho student murders

By Jean Casarez , Rebekah Riess , CNN It was the first time the public had heard directly from the lone suspect in a gruesome crime that shocked the nation. Photo: August Frank/Pool/Reuters via CNN Newsource For 30 months, Bryan Kohberger and his defense attorneys insisted on his innocence in the fatal stabbings of four University of Idaho students in their off-campus home. But in a matter of minutes Wednesday, in a packed courtroom roughly 300 miles from the horrific scene of the crime, everything changed. "Are you pleading guilty because you are guilty?" the judge asked. "Yes," Kohberger said. "Did you on Nov. 13, 2022, enter the residence at 1122 King Road in Moscow, Idaho, with the intent to commit the felony crime of murder?" the judge asked. "Yes," Kohberger said, again. It was the first time the public had heard directly from the lone suspect in a gruesome crime that shocked the nation. And it was to say what prosecutors had alleged all along: He did it. The remarkable change-of-plea hearing cements a deal that allows Kohberger to avoid the death penalty and his highly-anticipated murder trial by admitting guilt to charges of burglary and first-degree murder in the gruesome late-night killings of Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle, Kaylee Goncalves and Madison Mogen. The deal ends a tumultuous case that included a cross-country hunt for the suspect and a lengthy pre-trial legal battle that included several attempts by the defense to have the charges dismissed or the death penalty taken off the table. The announcement of the deal comes after several judge's rulings that would have narrowed the defense's strategy options at trial. As Kohberger, a 30-year-old former PhD student of criminology, confirmed his guilt to state district Judge Steven Hippler, one of the victims' family members silently wept as other loved ones listened with keen focus. After the plea, state prosecutors delivered a lengthy outline of the evidence that would have been presented against Kohberger at trial, including phone records that placed him near the victims' home and an account of how he moved through the home on the night of the killings. "We will not represent that he intended to commit all of the murders that he did that night, but we know that that is what resulted, and that he then killed 'intentionally, willfully, deliberately, with premeditation and with malice aforethought' Madison Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, Ethan Chapin and Xana Kernodle," prosecutor Bill Thompson said, appearing to choke up as he read their names. Several key questions were left unaddressed, including what drove Kohberger to carry out the killings, why he targeted the students and why two other roommates were spared. The families of the four victims - who have desperately awaited answers they believed would be revealed at trial - remain torn over the outcome of the deal. Mogen's parents have expressed their support. Her father, Ben Mogen, told the Idaho Statesman he viewed the deal as an opportunity to avoid the pain and spectacle of a trial and focus on healing. At least one parent, Steve Goncalves, told CNN he felt blindsided by the announcement, which came just days after he and other loved ones had urged prosecutors to pursue the death penalty. On the burglary charge, Kohberger will face a sentence of 10 years. He will face a life sentence for each of the four counts of first-degree homicide. The five counts will run consecutively. Kohberger waived his right to appeal the plea and sentence, and to seek leniency and reconsideration of the sentence later. Kohberger's sentencing hearing has been set for July 23 at 9 a.m. and he will remain in jail until that time. Kohberger will no longer be allowed to appear in the civilian shirt and tie he usually wears for hearings, Judge Hippler said. The next time he steps foot in the court room, he will be dressed in prison garb. Kaylee Goncalves, Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle and Madison Mogen were victims in the Idaho student killings. Photo: (Obtained by CNN) via CNN Newsource Why Goncalves, Mogen, Chapin and Kernodle were killed remains a mystery. All four were students at the University of Idaho, and three lived together - along with two other roommates - at a residence near campus in Moscow, a college town of about 25,000 people. On Saturday, November 12, 2022, Goncalves posted a series of photos on her Instagram with the caption, "one lucky girl to be surrounded by these ppl everyday." One photo shows Mogen sitting on Goncalves' shoulders, with Chapin and Kernodle standing next to them. That night, the group of friends had gone out in Moscow and returned late to their shared home. The next day, police found the four students slaughtered inside the home, with no signs of forced entry or damage. There was "no connection between Mr. Kohberger and the victims," an attorney for the defendant argued in a mid-2023 court filing, pointing to a "total lack of DNA evidence from the victims in Mr. Kohberger's apartment, office, home, or vehicle." But while authorities had "not said if the victims knew Kohberger … the suspect's now-deleted Instagram account - which was reviewed by PEOPLE before it was removed - followed the accounts of Mogen, Goncalves and Kernodle," the outlet reported in early 2023. The suspect allegedly contacted one of the female victims "repeatedly" late that October, roughly two weeks before the killings, People reported, adding the unidentified victim did not respond to the messages. It's unclear whether that victim had seen the alleged messages from Kohberger. Kohberger also visited the restaurant where two of the victims worked in the weeks before their killings, according to People. It's unclear whether either of the victims were at the restaurant when Kohberger visited, whether he ever interacted with them there or whether he ever sat in the restaurant to eat his food. Photo: Facebook / Mad Greek Restaurant Xana, Goncalves and Mogen shared their three-floor, six-bedroom home with Dylan Mortensen and Bethany Funke. Both were home during the time of the murders - but spared - police have said. Mortensen, identified in court paperwork as "D.M.," told investigators she "heard crying" in the house the morning of the killings and heard a voice say, "it's ok, I'm going to help you." She then saw a "figure clad in black clothing and a mask that covered the person's mouth and nose walking towards her," according to a probable cause affidavit released in early 2023 in prosecutors' case against Kohberger. "D.M. described the figure as 5'10" or taller, male, not very muscular, but athletically built with bushy eyebrows. The male walked past D.M. as she stood in a 'frozen shock phase,'" court documents reveal. "The male walked towards the back sliding glass door. D.M. locked herself in her room after seeing the male," the document says, adding the roommate did not recognize the male. "I'm freaking out," Mortensen texted Funke about the masked man dressed in black in their house nearly eight hours before calling 911 to report Kernodle unconscious at the home. Funke later texted Mortensen: "Come to my room" and "run." After Kohberger's arrest, Mortensen couldn't definitively say whether he was the man she saw in her home around the time of the killings, court filings showed. Both surviving roommates had been expected to testify at Kohberger's trial. The four University of Idaho students were found dead at an off-campus home in Moscow, Idaho, in November 2022. Photo: Angela Palermo/Idaho Statesman/TNS/Getty Images via CNN Newsource Under the proposed plea deal, "there's no guarantee" Kohberger would share details of the crime, Goncalves' father, Steve Gonclaves, told CNN on Tuesday. "We want something like his knife - where he threw it - his kill kit, his suit, anything like that," he said. "If he gave those type of details, people would just be like, 'We were wrong. He did it, and let's leave everybody alone and move on to another case.'" An "edged weapon such as a knife" was used in the killings, Moscow Police said, but only a knife sheath was found at the crime scene, on the bed next to Mogen's body. Kohberger had purchased a military-style knife, a sheath and a knife sharpener on Amazon in the months before the killings, prosecution filings show. A selfie Kohberger is believed to have taken on the morning of November 13, 2022 - only hours after the murders - is also among case documents. In it, he stands in front of a shower, dressed in a white shirt, smiling and giving a thumbs-up. Five days after the students' deaths, Kohberger got a new license plate for his white Hyundai Elantra, court documents reveal. An officer at Washington State University, where Kohberger was a PhD student at the time of the killings, found a 2015 white Hyundai Elantra registered to Kohberger in an apartment complex parking lot, and investigators in the case of the slain students zeroed in on Kohberger because his driver's license information and photo were consistent with a surviving roommate's description. Trash, recovered from the Kohberger family residence by Pennsylvania law enforcement and sent to the Idaho State Lab for DNA testing, was used to help investigators narrow down Kohberger as the suspect in the Idaho student killings in December 2022, court documents show. Soon after that, "the Idaho State Lab reported that a DNA profile obtained from the trash" matched a tan leather knife sheath found "laying on the bed" of one of the victims, according to the documents. Kohberger was arrested for the killings on December 30, 2022, in his home state of Pennsylvania, authorities said. - CNN

Sean 'Diddy' Combs denied bail ahead of sentencing on prostitution charges
Sean 'Diddy' Combs denied bail ahead of sentencing on prostitution charges

RNZ News

time6 hours ago

  • RNZ News

Sean 'Diddy' Combs denied bail ahead of sentencing on prostitution charges

Photo: AFP/ NurPhoto / Image Press Agency Music mogul Sean "Diddy" Combs has been denied his bid to be released from jail ahead of his sentencing. The music mogul has been found not guilty of racketeering and sex trafficking but convicted of a less serious prostitution charge after a high-profile marathon trial in New York. The jury , after 13 hours of deliberation, found Combs guilty of two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution, each of which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison. But he was acquitted of a major racketeering charge and two sex trafficking charges that could have sent him to prison to life. Combs bowed his head, quietly pumping his fists in his lap and bringing his hands together in a prayer as the verdicts were read out. At one point, he looked towards the ceiling, appearing to express deep relief. He shook hands with one of his lawyers, who embraced each other - two of them teared up in joy - and mouthed thanks to the eight-man, four-woman jury as they filed out of the courtroom. The relatively quick verdict arrived after seven weeks of at-times excruciating testimony, in which prosecutors had accused Combs of being the boss of a decades-long criminal group who directed loyal employees and bodyguards to commit myriad offenses at his behest. Janice Combs, centre, mother of Sean "Diddy" Combs, waves as she departs Manhattan's Federal Court alongside her grandchildren and family members after the verdict. Photo: AFP / Timothy A. Clary Jurors announced a partial verdict late Tuesday (US time) and said they were deadlocked on the racketeering charge - but Judge Arun Subramanian instructed them to keep working. Combs, once one of the most powerful figures in the music industry, had vehemently denied all charges. Along with racketeering, Combs was charged with sex trafficking two women: singer Casandra Ventura and a woman who testified under the pseudonym Jane. Both were in long-term relationships with the entrepreneur and hip-hop pioneer, and they each testified about abuse, threats and coercive sex in wrenching detail. They both said they felt obligated to participate in Combs-directed sexual marathons with hired men. Combs's lawyers insisted the sex was consensual. They conceded domestic violence was a feature of his relationships -- one harrowing example of him beating and dragging Ventura was caught on security footage that has been widely publicized. Yet while disturbing, that did not amount to sex trafficking, the defence said. Jurors ultimately agreed. Ventura's lawyer, Douglas Wigdor, released a statement saying she had made an "indelible mark on both the entertainment industry and the fight for justice." "She displayed unquestionable strength and brought attention to the realities of powerful men in our orbit and the misconduct that has persisted for decades without repercussion," read the statement, adding that Ventura's "courage" in speaking out allowed for Combs's two convictions. Combs's family members, present throughout the trial that began in early May, clapped and cheered for him in court. His mother waved cameras as she left the building with a smile. Influencers and YouTubers have scurried around the court complex throughout the trial, jumping on livestreams to offer hot takes and conspiracy theories. "The mainstream media is so mad right now that a Black man isn't going down!" shouted one content creator. Combs has been incarcerated at a notorious Brooklyn prison since he was arrested in September 2024. The defence immediately requested he be released on bond - they suggested $1 million - and permitted to travel between Miami, Los Angeles, and New York while he awaits sentencing. They said they would hand over his passport to court officials. A ruling on the matter is expected later today. "He would be nothing short of a fool, which he is not, to violate any conditions the court set," defence attorney Marc Agnifilo said, adding that Combs "treasures" the "opportunity he has been given." But lead prosecutor Maurene Comey opposed the request, accusing the defence of trying to "downplay the seriousness" of the convictions. The guilty findings confirm that Combs transported both Ventura and Jane for purposes of prostitution during the sometimes days-long sex parties. Comey emphasized that the encounters included a pattern of violence and drug use, conduct she said should "merit a lengthy period of incarceration." Comey called Combs a flight risk who "does not have a respect for the law." Sentencing will occur at a later date. - AFP / Reuters

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