Sean Combs (at proper) watches his kids current impression statements throughout his sentencing listening to in New York. Combs was sentenced to 50 months in jail.
Jane Rosenberg/Reuters
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Jane Rosenberg/Reuters
On Friday, Sean Combs was sentenced by a federal choose to 50 months in jail. The 55-year-old music mogul was convicted in July on two counts of transportation for prostitution, however acquitted on extra critical prices of intercourse trafficking and racketeering conspiracy.
After a daylong listening to that culminated in Combs himself addressing the choose, talking at size for the primary time through the trial, Decide Arun Subramanian mentioned {that a} important sentence was required to “ship a message to abusers and victims alike that exploitation and violence in opposition to ladies is met with actual accountability.”
Subramanian made his choice after listening to arguments from federal prosecutors, Combs’ protection attorneys and Combs himself. His protection attorneys had argued that their shopper ought to obtain not more than 14 months behind bars. With time already served, that will imply he’d be launched by the top of the 12 months. Federal prosecutors, then again, requested that Subramanian sentence Combs to a minimum of 11 years and three months in jail.
Combs has been held in a Brooklyn jail since his arrest final September. The sentencing listening to was the fruits of an eight-week trial outlined by emotionally-charged testimony, superstar appearances and a buzzing courthouse filled with hordes of Combs’ supporters, social media influencers and reporters. Federal prosecutors spent six weeks presenting an elaborate, generally meandering case that accused Combs of working a felony group that enabled and hid intercourse crimes for many years. Their two predominant witnesses, the singer Cassie Ventura and a lady who testified utilizing the pseudonym “Jane,” informed the courtroom that Combs lured them into romantic relationships after which repeatedly compelled them into drug-fueled intercourse marathons with male escorts.
Combs’ protection crew spent a lot of the trial discrediting the ladies’s testimony by presenting textual content message proof during which Ventura and Jane every gave the impression to be agreeing to the encounters and serving to to plan them. After the prosecution introduced greater than two dozen witnesses — together with Combs’ former staff, federal brokers and buddies of the alleged victims — the protection referred to as none, and rested its case in underneath half-hour. In the end, a jury acquitted Combs of intercourse trafficking and racketeering conspiracy, however discovered him responsible of transporting Jane and Ventura throughout state strains to interact in industrial intercourse.
Regardless of Combs’ acquittal on probably the most critical prices, no one — not even his personal legal professionals — denied that he induced hurt. A key piece of proof within the case was a 2016 surveillance video of Combs beating Ventura in a resort hallway. All through the trial, Combs’ protection attorneys conceded that their shopper had a historical past of home violence, however argued the federal government was not charging him for these crimes.
Throughout Friday’s listening to, prosecutors pointed to Combs’ violent habits as a justification for an extended sentence.
