What to Know
- The hip-hop mogul was convicted in July of flying folks across the nation for sexual encounters, together with his girlfriends and male intercourse employees, in violation of the federal Mann Act.
- A jury acquitted Combs, 55, of extra critical racketeering conspiracy and intercourse trafficking costs that would have put him away for all times.
- Prosecutors say he ought to spend greater than 11 years in jail for his conviction on two counts of transportation to have interaction in prostitution. Combs’ legal professionals need him freed now, saying the lengthy sentence sought by prosecutors is “wildly out of proportion” to the crime.
Sean “Diddy” Combs faces sentencing Friday in a sordid felony case that would maintain him locked up for years.
The hip-hop mogul was convicted in July of flying folks across the nation for sexual encounters, together with his girlfriends and male intercourse employees, in violation of the federal Mann Act.
A jury acquitted Combs, 55, of extra critical racketeering conspiracy and intercourse trafficking costs that would have put him away for all times.
Prosecutors say he ought to spend greater than 11 years in jail for his conviction on two counts of transportation to have interaction in prostitution. Combs’ legal professionals need him freed now, saying the lengthy sentence sought by prosecutors is “wildly out of proportion” to the crime.
U.S. District Decide Arun Subramanian, who will resolve the sentence, has signaled that Combs is unlikely to be freed quickly. He twice rejected bail for the rapper, who has been jailed at a federal detention heart in Brooklyn since his arrest a 12 months in the past.
The sentencing comes after an almost two-month trial that includes testimony from girls who described being overwhelmed, threatened, sexually assaulted and blackmailed by Combs.
A former girlfriend, R&B singer Casandra “Cassie” Ventura, stated Combs ordered her to have “disgusting” intercourse with strangers lots of of instances throughout their decade-long relationship.
The jury was repeatedly proven video clips of Combs dragging and beating Cassie in a Los Angeles lodge hallway after a kind of multi-day sexual marathons, which she known as “freak-offs” throughout her 4 days of testimony.
A lady who testified underneath the pseudonym “Jane” informed jurors she, too, was subjected to violence and felt obligated to carry out sexually with male intercourse employees at drug-fueled “lodge nights” whereas Combs watched and typically filmed.
To help their racketeering case, prosecutors additionally introduced on witnesses who testified about different violent acts. A former private assistant testified that Combs raped her. One in all Cassie’s mates informed the jury Combs dangled her from a Seventeenth-floor balcony. The rapper Child Cudi testified that Combs broke into his residence after studying he and Cassie had been relationship.
Though the jury acquitted Combs of racketeering, the decide can nonetheless think about that testimony as he decides the sentence.
Subramanian can be contemplating letters submitted by Combs and a few of his accusers.
The decide within the Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs case is weighing highly effective affect letters from each supporters and critics of the disgraced music mogul. Protection attorneys suppose combs has spent sufficient time behind bars, and are searching for him to be sentenced to time served. However prosecutors are pushing for a prolonged sentence, asking for him to serve 11 years in jail. NBC New York’s Erica Byfield reviews.
In his letter to the decide Thursday, Combs promised he would by no means commit one other crime if launched, saying, “The outdated me died in jail and a brand new model of me was reborn.”
In her letter, Cassie referred to as Combs a manipulative abuser who has “no real interest in altering or changing into higher.”
“He’ll at all times be the identical merciless, power-hungry, manipulative man that he’s,” she wrote.
A former private assistant who stated Combs raped her in 2010 requested Subramanian to ship a sentence “that takes under consideration the continued hazard my abuser poses to me, and to others.” The previous assistant, who testified underneath the pseudonym “Mia,” is anticipated to talk at Friday’s sentencing.
Combs will tackle the courtroom, in response to courtroom filings. His protection staff can be planning to play a 15-minute video.
Combs’ legal professionals say the sexual encounters had been consensual and that being in jail has hastened Combs’ sobriety and compelled him to study from his misbehavior. They’ve stated there isn’t a want for him to stay behind bars as a result of he has already been punished sufficient.
At a courtroom listening to final week, Combs appeared buoyant, as he informed his mom and kids that he’s “getting nearer to going residence.”
