Jury has verdict in 4 of 5 counts against Sean 'Diddy' Combs, judge indicates they'll keep deliberating

The jury in Sean "Diddy" Combs' sex trafficking trial said Tuesday (July 1) that it has reached a verdict on four of five counts against the hip-hop mogul, but is as yet unable to decide on the top charge, racketeering conspiracy.

The judge indicated that he would instruct the jury to continue weighing the charge, echoing the sentiments of prosecutors and Combs’ defence team that just two days into deliberations was too soon to give up on reaching a verdict on all counts.

Judge Arun Subramanian said he received a note on Tuesday afternoon from the jury saying they had reached a partial verdict, but were unable to reach a unanimous verdict on the racketeering conspiracy charge because there were jurors with “unpersuadable views” on both sides.

Assistant US Attorney Maurene Comey suggested the judge give the jury a modified version of what’s known as an Allen charge – instructions encouraging them to keep deliberating after reaching an impasse.

RACKETEERING IS THE MOST COMPLICATED CHARGE

Racketeering conspiracy – count 1 on the jury’s verdict sheet – is the most complicated of the charges against Combs because it requires the jury to decide not only whether he ran a “racketeering enterprise”, but also whether he was involved in committing some or all of various types of offenses, such as kidnapping and arson.

The charge falls under RICO – the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act – which is best known for being used in organised crime and drug cartel cases.

The jury has been deliberating since Monday. Earlier on Tuesday, they asked to review critical testimony from one of the prosecution’s most important witnesses: The hip-hop mogul's former longtime girlfriend, Cassie.

Jurors requested the testimony about 75 minutes into their second day of weighing charges that Combs used his fame, wealth and violence to force two girlfriends into drug-fuelled sex marathons with male sex workers known as “freak-offs” or “hotel nights.”

The panel of eight men and four women asked for Cassie’s account of Combs beating, kicking and dragging her at a Los Angeles hotel in 2016 – an assault captured on now-infamous security camera footage.

They also asked to see Cassie’s testimony about an incident in which she said Combs accused her of taking drugs from him and kicked her off their yacht at the Cannes Film Festival in France in 2013. On their way back to the US, she said, he threatened to release explicit videos of her having sex.

In addition, the jury asked for Cassie and stripper Daniel Phillip’s testimony about her jumping into his lap at a New York City hotel after, as Phillip testified, he suspected Combs had been slapping and slamming her around an adjacent room.

“Her whole entire body was shaking, like she was terrified,” said Phillip, who was at the hotel for a sexual encounter with Cassie sometime between 2012 and 2014.

Phillip testified that he asked Cassie, the R&B singer whose real name is Casandra Ventura, why she was with Combs if he was hitting her and beating her. He said he told her she was in real danger. Cassie, he said, “basically tried to convince me that it was okay, it’s okay. I’m fine, I’ll be okay".

Phillip and Cassie were among the first witnesses who testified when the trial began last month.

The jury’s testimony request came soon after Combs' lawyers and prosecutors began the day haggling with Judge Arun Subramanian over a jury question left over from the end of the first day of deliberations on Monday.

Jurors wanted clarification about what qualifies as drug distribution, an aspect of the racketeering conspiracy charge that will help determine whether Combs can be convicted or exonerated on the count.

Subramanian said he would remind jurors of the instructions he gave them on that part of the case before they started deliberating on Monday. Combs’ lawyers had pushed for a more expansive response, but prosecutors argued – and Subramanian agreed – that doing so could end up confusing jurors more.