What to know earlier than Sean Combs faces sentencing : NPR

[ad_1] <img src="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/5062x3050+345+107/resize/1100/quality/50/format/jpeg/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F6c%2Fac%2F0ff716324723863ca47ec153ee16%2Fgettyimages-1434545772.jpg" data-template="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/5062x3050+345+107/resize/{width}/quality/{quality}/format/{format}/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F6c%2Fac%2F0ff716324723863ca47ec153ee16%2Fgettyimages-1434545772.jpg" class="img" alt="Sean Combs is scheduled to appear in federal courtroom in New York on Friday to face sentencing for his conviction on prostitution related charges." fetchpriority="high"/> Sean Combs is scheduled to look in federal courtroom in New York on Friday to face sentencing for his conviction on prostitution-related prices. Mike Coppola/Getty Pictures conceal caption

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Mike Coppola/Getty Pictures On Friday, the high-profile trial of Sean Combs, which was marked by explosive allegations towards the mogul, crowds of his supporters and weeks of painstakingly graphic testimony and proof, will attain its last stage. Combs, who has been in custody since his arrest in 2024, will seem at a sentencing listening to in New York Metropolis to advocate for his imminent launch. Federal prosecutors are anticipated to request that Choose Arun Subramanian sentence Combs to greater than a decade behind bars.

Combs' trial started in Might and resulted in a break up verdict on July 2. He was convicted on two counts of transportation for prostitution; every carries a most sentence of 10 years. However he was acquitted of the extra severe prices of intercourse trafficking and racketeering conspiracy. The investigation, which began in November 2023, centered on the allegations of two girls: the singer Cassie Ventura and "Jane," who testified utilizing a pseudonym to guard her privateness. Each girls instructed the courtroom that all through their relationships with Combs, he used violence, manipulation and coercion to get them to take part in drug-fueled encounters with male intercourse employees.

Combs, who's 55 years outdated, was discovered responsible of transporting Ventura and Jane — together with employed escorts — throughout state traces for the aim of partaking in industrial intercourse. It is a violation of the Mann Act, a 1910 statute that Combs' attorneys have argued has "racist and sexist origins." Earlier this week, Choose Arun Subramanian denied a movement filed by the protection to overturn Combs' conviction. A number of authorities witnesses filed sufferer affect statements to Choose Subramanian forward of Friday's sentencing listening to, together with Ventura, who expressed disappointment over Combs' acquittal.

"For 4 days in Might, whereas 9 months pregnant with my son, I testified in entrance of a packed

courtroom about probably the most traumatic and horrifying chapter in my life," Ventura wrote. "I testified that from age 19, Sean Combs used violence, threats, substances, and management over my profession to entice me in over a decade of abuse."

Combs' attorneys requested a sentence of not more than 14 months; Combs has been held in a Brooklyn jail since final September and has been denied bail a number of occasions. With time already served, meaning he could possibly be freed earlier than the top of the 12 months. Though the mogul opted to not testify throughout his trial, paperwork filed by his attorneys point out that he intends to handle the courtroom on Friday so as to "allocute in probably the most dignified and respectful vogue attainable." Allocution statements are usually a chance for defendants to specific regret in an effort to mitigate their sentences.

In paperwork filed this week, federal prosecutors requested that Combs obtain at least 11 years and three months, together with a monetary penalty of $500,000 (the utmost authorized quantity). They cited Combs' in depth historical past of violence and management in direction of his girlfriends and his workers, a number of of whom took the witness stand.

One of many key items of proof through the trial was a 2016 resort safety video of Combs kicking, punching and knocking Ventura to the bottom; prosecutors additionally confirmed images of bruising and different accidents that Ventura alleged have been inflicted by Combs all through their decade-long relationship. In the course of the trial, Combs' protection attorneys repeatedly admitted that their shopper had a historical past of home violence and bodily assault, however argued that these crimes didn't quantity to trafficking or racketeering. In her letter to the decide, Ventura mentioned she continues to grapple with the trauma brought on by Combs.

"I nonetheless have nightmares and flashbacks on a daily, on a regular basis foundation, and proceed to require

psychological care to deal with my previous. My worries that Sean Combs or his associates will

come after me and my household is my actuality," Ventura wrote. "As a lot progress as I've made in recovering from his abuse, I stay very a lot afraid of what he's able to and the malice he undoubtedly harbors in direction of me for having the bravery to inform the reality."

Ventura's mother and father additionally filed a letter to the decide; so did Combs' former workers Deonte Nash, Capricorn Clark and a girl who testified utilizing the pseudonym "Mia."

In the course of the trial, Mia testified that she labored as Combs' private assistant from 2009 to 2017. All through that point, she mentioned, he bodily and sexually assaulted her on a number of events. Mia spent three days on the witness stand, a lot of which was spent wanting down, talking softly and infrequently crying. Combs' protection attorneys approached her cross-examination with a few of their most aggressive techniques of the trial, repeatedly accusing her of mendacity concerning the abuse and calling her allegations a part of a "#MeToo cash seize towards Sean Combs."

"On account of the protection group's techniques throughout my testimony (and regardless of my use of a

pseudonym), my id has been publicized, and my identify is now not my very own — it's eternally

linked to my abuser's violence," Mia wrote in a letter to Choose Subramanian. "What he stole from me can't be returned — it can't be decreased to years or cash. He stole my freedom, my sense of security, my potential to belief myself and others, and my confidence."

Though Mia shouldn't be a sufferer of the crimes Combs was in the end convicted of, prosecutors have requested that she be allowed to supply a sufferer affect assertion throughout Friday's listening to. Combs' attorneys have opposed the federal government's movement, claiming Mia repeatedly lied throughout her testimony. The majority of the protection's case relied on makes an attempt to discredit Combs' alleged victims throughout cross-examination. Whereas the prosecution spent greater than six weeks presenting its case towards Combs, the mogul's protection didn't name any witnesses to the stand and rested its case in underneath half-hour. On Friday, the protection must make its case to Choose Subramanian — not the jury.

Forward of sentencing, Combs' attorneys submitted a number of letters on his behalf, together with one from an ex-girlfriend initially recognized as Sufferer #3 within the authorities's indictment. Virginia Huynh in the end didn't testify. In her letter, she described assembly with prosecutors forward of the trial.

"Throughout these conferences, I felt pressured to really feel like a sufferer," Huynh wrote. "I instructed them I used to be not however they insisted that I used to be, even once I expressed my fact in any other case."

The rapper Caresha Brownlee, who performs as Yung Miami and was romantically and professionally concerned with Combs within the years main as much as his arrest, wrote a letter defending his character. Former colleagues, household mates and a fellow inmate at Metropolitan Detention Middle additionally submitted statements, calling Combs a optimistic affect on these round him and requesting that he be allowed to return residence to his household.