Sean “Diddy” Combs is about to be sentenced Friday morning for his federal conviction on two prostitution-related costs.
He’s been jailed in a federal detention facility in Brooklyn, New York since his arrest in September of final yr and faces as much as 10 years in jail for every depend of transportation to have interaction in prostitution. Combs was convicted for transporting two of his former girlfriends to have intercourse with paid male escorts at drug-fueled nights referred to as “Freak Offs” or “lodge nights.”
A jury in July acquitted Combs of racketeering conspiracy and intercourse trafficking costs, permitting him to keep away from a doable life sentence.
Attorneys for the federal government and Combs’ protection will deal with their sentencing suggestions on the listening to.
Combs submitted a four-page letter to the decide on the eve of his sentencing, expressing regret for sure violent habits and pleading with the decide for mercy. Combs’ attorneys have indicated that he additionally needs to deal with the court docket earlier than Choose Subramanian points his sentence – a proper of each defendant, although not required. In extra, his legal professionals mentioned they need to play a 15-minute video.
Combs’ mother and adult children, who attended a lot of the eight-week trial, are anticipated to be on the listening to to assist him, a supply near Combs advised CNN.
Federal prosecutors say Combs has proven no regret for his convicted crimes and are searching for a sentence of greater than 11 years in jail. They’ve argued he deserves a steep sentence for bodily and mentally abusing his girlfriends and staff for years.
Combs’ attorneys, in the meantime, requested Choose Arun Subramanian to condemn him to not more than 14 months, basically the time he’s already served, arguing the decide shouldn’t contemplate any proof associated to the costs he was acquitted of, together with testimony about his alleged coercion of the victims.
The US probation division has really useful a sentence ranging between 5 and 7 years in jail on this case. Victims of crimes are additionally routinely allowed to deal with the decide in what are generally known as sufferer affect statements at a sentencing.
It’s unlikely that Combs’ former girlfriends, Casandra Ventura or a lady who testified underneath the pseudonym Jane, will deal with the court docket on the listening to.
Ventura, in a letter submitted forward of the proceedings, urged the decide to contemplate the victims in his sentence. She wrote that she fears for the protection of herself and her household if Combs is launched. She advised the decide she is protecting “as personal and quiet” as doable for worry of retribution. Jane didn’t submit a letter weighing in on Combs’ doable punishment.
Choose Subramanian granted a request from a former worker of Combs to talk on the sentencing. The worker, who testified underneath the pseudonym Mia, labored for Combs from 2009 to 2017 and alleged that she was assaulted by the music mogul.
Prosecutors requested the decide to let Mia deal with the court docket for about 5 minutes, though her allegations aren’t tied on to Combs’ conviction. The protection opposed the request and accused the lady of mendacity about being a sufferer.
Late Wednesday, Combs’ legal professionals submitted a letter from one other former girlfriend who was recognized as “Sufferer 3” within the case. Prosecutors supposed to name her to testify on the trial however simply days earlier than it started, they indicated to the decide they’d been unable to succeed in her.
The girl, Virginia Huynh, who is named Gina, wrote to the decide that she wasn’t a sufferer of intercourse trafficking and expressed that to the prosecutors throughout three conferences.
“I felt pressured to really feel like a sufferer,” Huynh wrote of her interactions with prosecutors. “I advised 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 letter was submitted by Combs authorized group together with a number of others. Huynh mentioned she was not requested to jot down the letter.
After the events deal with Combs’ impending sentence, Choose Subramanian will seal his destiny on the finish of the listening to and certain clarify the reasoning behind his determination.
Prosecutors have mentioned the decide ought to contemplate Combs’ historical past of bodily violence and management of his two former girlfriends Ventura and Jane, saying it’s a part of the transportation crime he was convicted of.
Combs’ protection group acknowledged the bodily abuse at trial but additionally argued that the home violence in his relationships didn’t quantity to the intercourse trafficking costs he had confronted.
Choose Subramanian refused to grant bail twice for the reason that jury returned its verdict, citing Combs’ historical past of violence and the protection group’s admissions about it.
Lawyer for Sean “Diddy” Combs speaks solely to CNN
The decide additionally denied Combs’ request to vacate his conviction or retry him on the prostitution-related costs in an order earlier this week.
Combs lived a “high-octane movie star way of life” with power substance abuse issues for many years earlier than his arrest, his attorneys wrote in his sentencing submission. “With out minimizing Mr. Combs’s conduct, that is in some ways a ‘intercourse, medicine, and rock n’ roll’ story.”
Now, his protection group claims Combs is a modified man who’s sober for the primary time in 25 years and has used the final yr in detention to reform himself with none violent incidents.
Combs’ household, buddies, former staff and enterprise associates from Dangerous Boy Leisure and Combs Enterprises submitted greater than 70 letters to ask Choose Subramanian for leniency on his behalf.
In her personal letter submitted to Choose Subramanian, Ventura mentioned she doesn’t consider Combs has modified and fears his vengeance when he’s launched from jail.
“I do know that who he was to me—the manipulator, the aggressor, the abuser, the trafficker—is who he’s as a human. He has little interest in altering or turning into higher. He’ll all the time be the identical merciless, power-hungry, manipulative man that he’s,” she wrote to the decide.
CNN’s Elizabeth Wagmeister contributed to this report.
