Jurors reach verdict on 4 counts at Sean ‘Diddy' Combs sex trafficking trial, remain deadlocked on 1
In a note sent out after 4 p.m., the eight men and four women on the jury said they had decided on two counts of sex trafficking and two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution. The note did not indicate what their verdict was on those counts.
The outstanding charge accuses Combs of racketeering conspiracy, which alleges he ran his Bad Boy Records empire like a criminal organization. Manhattan Federal Judge Arun Subramanian asked lawyers for the government and Combs' team to email him their proposals about what to do next. He said he could tell them to keep deliberating or accept a partial verdict.
Combs appeared shell-shocked in court and was seen dabbing his eyes after his attorneys received the note. The development came as a thunderstorm broke out amid darkening skies above the courthouse.
Earlier Tuesday, in a morning note, the jury asked to review the testimony of Combs' ex, Casandra 'Cassie' Ventura, regarding Combs brutally assaulting her in March 2016 at the Intercontinental Hotel in Los Angeles. Explosive footage of the assault shows Combs pummeling Ventura in a hallway, dragging her by the hair, kicking her while she curls up on the floor, and hurling a vase at her. Ventura on May 13 testified that the assault occurred after she tried to leave a 'freak-off' session after Combs punched her in the face.
Jurors also wanted to look back over Ventura's testimony regarding her interactions with Daniel Phillips, a former male revue performer, whom she and Phillips testified was hired multiple times to sleep with Ventura for Combs' sexual gratification between 2012 and 2013. The panel also asked to review Phillips' testimony, during which he said he was once directed to urinate on Ventura, that she was once so heavily drugged he could not sleep with her, and that the only time he communicated with her alone, she appeared 'terrified.' Phillips said he stopped meeting the couple after witnessing Combs physically assault Ventura.
The jury note also requested a review of accounts that Ventura shared about traveling with Combs to the Cannes Film Festival one year. In her testimony about the trip to the French film festival, Ventura said Combs had accused her of stealing his drugs and kicked her off his yacht without her shoes or her passport. After the tense trip, Ventura said she had swapped seats with someone on a commercial flight back to New York, but Combs switched them back. She said he spent the flight playing humiliating footage of her at freakoffs that she thought had been deleted, and then when they got back to the city, she felt she had no choice but to submit to another of the depraved events.
Combs, 55, could be sentenced to life in prison if found guilty of sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy. He's pleaded not guilty to all charges.
The Manhattan U.S. attorney's office alleges Combs abused his notoriety and his wealth for two decades to sexually exploit women at weekly sex parties, directing them to perform sordid sex acts with a rotation of male escorts while high on his supply of drugs.
Prosecutors say members of Combs' Bad Boy Records empire helped organize the vile sessions and resorted to crimes like kidnapping, arson, witness tampering and bribery to intimidate women into submission and terrorize anyone who threatened Combs' authority.
Combs, a New York native who launched the careers of iconic hip hop artists like the Notorious B.I.G., maintains that he never pressured women into sexual performances against their will, that he paid escorts for their time, not sex, and that his employees were not hired to commit crimes.
The trial continues Wednesday.
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