Sean Combs’ sex trafficking and racketeering trial has reached a partial verdict, with the jury coming to a decision on four of five counts against the music mogul.
As per Rolling Stone, according to the court proceedings on Tuesday, the jury remains divided on the racketeering conspiracy charge, with the note sent to Judge Arun Subramanian indicating there were jurors with “unpersuadable opinions on both sides.”
Sean Combs currently faces five felony charges, including racketeering conspiracy, two counts of sex trafficking related to two ex-girlfriends, and two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution. The hip-hop mogul has pleaded not guilty and denied all allegations.
Deliberations are expected to continue Wednesday morning from 9am (US time) as both the prosecution and defence agreed that the jury should continue their discussions, though they differed on how to respond to the jury’s note. Prosecutors requested a modified Allen charge – essentially an instruction urging the jury to reach a verdict – while the defence argued such forceful language wasn’t necessary at this stage.
Judge Subramanian ultimately instructed the jury to “keep deliberating” and reiterated some of his original instructions about jury deliberation. “It is your duty as jurors to consult with one another and to deliberate with a view to reaching an agreement,” he told the jury before dismissing them for the day.
To reach a verdict on the RICO Act charge, the jury must consider several complex factors. As explained in the original instructions, they must find that at least two people agreed to participate in a criminal enterprise, that Combs was a willfull member, that two predicate crimes were committed as part of the conspiracy, and that these activities affected interstate or foreign commerce.
The indictment lists eight potential predicate acts for jurors to consider, including bribery, drug distribution, arson, kidnapping, sex trafficking, forced labour, witness tampering, and transportation to engage in prostitution.
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During closing arguments, prosecutor Christy Slavik highlighted testimony related to each option, including allegations that Combs gave a hotel security guard a $100,000 cash “bribe” for what he believed was the only copy of surveillance video showing Combs beating his ex-girlfriend Casandra “Cassie” Ventura at a Los Angeles hotel in March 2016. Slavik also argued that forced labour could include the “gruelling” sex marathons Combs allegedly forced Ventura and another ex-girlfriend to participate in.
Combs’ defence attorney, Marc Agnifilo, countered the racketeering charge by arguing that no one except Combs was indicted, and none of the witnesses who testified “said they were part of an enterprise.” He specifically challenged the predicate act of arson, which relates to the alleged firebombing of a car belonging to Kid Cudi, who briefly dated Ventura, calling arson “cowardly” and not Combs’ “style,” insisting Combs would have confronted Cudi in a ‘good, old-fashioned fistfight’ instead.
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