Sean “Diddy” Combs was sentenced to greater than 4 years in jail Friday — solidifying the hip-hop icon’s fall from grace after his wicked secrets and techniques have been uncovered in a blockbuster, stomach-churning intercourse crimes trial.
“You abused them, bodily, emotionally and psychologically,” Decide Arun Subramanian advised Combs earlier than heading down the sentence of fifty months on the finish of a marathon almost six-hour lengthy listening to.
“Why did it occur for thus lengthy? Since you had the facility and assets to maintain it going, and since you didn’t get caught,” Subramanian stated.
“A significant sentence is required to guard the general public for additional crimes.”
The extremely anticipated sentencing unfolded within the Manhattan federal courtroom the place jurors discovered Combs, 55, responsible of prostitution expenses after two harrowing months of testimony delving into his twisted, violent and child oil-drenched personal life.
Combs, clad in a wrinkled oatmeal sweater and donning black studying glasses, stood up and skim a prolonged assertion, apologizing to victims Cassie Ventura and his influencer ex-girlfriend “Jane” however in any other case spending most of his 12-minute handle targeted on himself.
He begged the choose for “one other likelihood” and vowed that he was a modified man.
“My home violence will all the time be a heavy burden that I’ll eternally have to hold,” he stated.
“I’m not this bigger than life particular person, I’m only a human being. I’ve been attempting my finest. I bought misplaced in extra, I bought misplaced in my ego.”
Jurors discovered Combs not responsible on July 2 of intercourse trafficking and racketeering — the highest expenses that had carried a most sentence of life in jail.
After he was convicted of the lesser raps, the choose ordered that he stay locked up in a hellish federal jail till his sentencing, regardless of makes an attempt by his attorneys to spring him on bail.
The Harlem native had as soon as stood atop the music world, rising his Dangerous Boy Information label into an empire price almost $1 billion, starred in motion pictures and hosted lavish, celebrity-packed “white events” in luxurious locales such because the Hamptons.
However the behind the glitzy facade, Combs harbored a darkish aspect — one which burst into public view when Ventura filed a bombshell November 2023 lawsuit accusing him of viciously beating her all through their decade-long relationship.
Ventura additionally revealed that Combs nurtured a perverted proclivity for “freak-offs” — grueling, drug-fueled romps accompanied with copious quantities of child oil during which he watched her have intercourse with male escorts.
Combs rapidly paid Ventura $20 million to settle the case, however her lawsuit opened the floodgates for sickeningly related accusations towards him — and a fateful federal prison probe.
After dramatic raids on Combs’ mansions in Miami and Beverly Hills, he was ultimately indicted and arrested in September 2024 on expenses of intercourse trafficking, racketeering and prostitution.
The trial started in Could, with a gray-haired, grandpa sweater-wearing Combs — who had been a snazzy trend plate earlier than his downfall — being carted each day from Brooklyn’s infamous Metropolitan Detention Middle.
Combs didn’t testify through the headline-grabbing trial, which drew scores of observers to the courtroom, together with the mogul’s mom, kids, and supporters equivalent to fellow disgraced rapper Kanye West.
Prosecutors referred to as 34 witnesses as they painted Combs because the kingpin of a prison crew that plotted a slew of crimes over twenty years, together with setting Child Cudi’s Porsche on hearth.
The rapper, actual title Scott Mescudi, took the stand, as did a constellation of Combs’ former assistants, ex-girlfriends and escorts employed to carry out within the “freak-offs.”
Combs managed each facet of the marathon intercourse periods, demanding his lovers apply copious quantities of child oil and plying them with ecstasy so they might keep awake, witnesses testified.
Nevertheless it was arguably Ventura’s testimony that proved essentially the most heart-rending.
Ventura, who took the stand for 4 days whereas 9 months pregnant, recounted in excruciating element how Combs beat her for years and pressured her into lots of of humiliating freak-off “performances” with male intercourse staff.
The “All About The Benjamins” singer even threatened to launch tapes of the “freak-offs” if she stopped taking part, Ventura testified.
“I feared for my profession. I feared for my household. It’s simply embarrassing. It’s horrible and disgusting. Nobody ought to try this to anybody,” she testified.
Combs maintained his innocence, as his attorneys argued that the ladies consented to the encounters and contended feds improperly criminalized his “swinger” way of life.
However the choose disagreed.
“You used that abuse to get your approach, particularly when it got here to ‘freak offs’ or ‘lodge nights,” he stated.
The mogul was responsible of home abuse, however not the intercourse crimes he was charged with, his attorneys argued.
He was convicted of two Mann Act Transportation counts — a federal legislation making it a criminal offense to move somebody throughout state traces for prostitution.
