Jury in Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs sex trial asks to review Cassie’s evidence

The jury deliberating in Sean “Diddy” Combs’ sex trafficking trial has asked to review critical evidence from one of the prosecution’s most important witnesses: the hip-hop mogul’s former longtime girlfriend Cassie.

Jurors requested the evidence 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 security camera footage.

They also asked to see Cassie’s evidence 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 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 evidence about her jumping into his lap at a New York City hotel after, as Mr 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 Mr Phillip, who was at the hotel for a sexual encounter with Cassie some time between 2012 and 2014.

He told the court 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.

He added that Cassie “basically tried to convince me that it was OK, ‘it’s OK. I’m fine, I’ll be OK'”.

The jury’s evidence 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.

Judge 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 Judge Subramanian agreed — that doing so could end up confusing jurors more.

On Monday, the panel deliberated for more than five hours without reaching a verdict.

Defence lawyers say prosecutors are trying to criminalise Combs’ swinger lifestyle. If anything, they say, his conduct amounted to domestic violence not federal felonies.

The 55-year-old could face 15 years in prison to life behind bars if he is convicted of all charges.