Studying Time: 4 minutes
Sean “Diddy” Combs discovered his destiny in a manhattan coutroom at the moment.
Concluding a authorized saga that started together with his arrest again in September of 2024, Combs was sentenced to greater than 4 years in jail Friday afternoon.
Again in July, Diddy was convicted on prices of transporting prostitutes throughout state traces however acquitted on extra critical intercourse trafficking and racketeering prices.
The sentencing listening to obtained off to a rocky begin for Workforce Diddy, when prosecutors introduced their declare that the defendant was so assured of an early launch that he had already booked talking gigs for subsequent week.
A story of two Diddies
Prosecutors portrayed Combs as a serial abuser with no respect for the legislation — one who has admitted to violent habits however proven no regret for his actions.
The protection supplied a really totally different model of Combs:
They highlighted his involvement with New York Metropolis’s constitution colleges and the voter registration marketing campaign he launched again in 2004.
The protection even put collectively an 11-minute documentary-style movie highlighting Combs’ philanthropic efforts. In response to CNN, Combs sobbed because the video was performed in court docket.
As anticipated, a number of of Combs’ family members addressed the court docket, together with his eldest son, 31-year-old Justin Combs.
Diddy’s kids plea for lenient sentencing
“I ask that you simply give my father a second likelihood, a second likelihood at life, a second likelihood to proper his wrongs, a second likelihood to be the person he actually is,” Justin informed the decide in a ready assertion.
“My father is my superhero. Seeing him damaged down and stripped of all the pieces is one thing I’ll always remember,” he continued.
Justin added that after years of habit, Diddy is now drug-free and devoted to his final aim of being a pacesetter to his household.
“I can actually sincerely say he’s modified for the higher. Your honor, I imagine my father nonetheless has a lot extra to provide the world and, extra importantly, a lot extra to provide his kids,” he defined.
“I understand how laborious it was to face up right here and inform me these issues, nevertheless it’s essential for me to listen to,” informed Diddy’s kids after listening to their statements.
“You end up, I feel, saying you may have two folks right here — who’s the true Sean Combs?” protection lawyer Xavier Donaldson requested at one level. “I wish to imagine that the true Sean Combs is within the grain of all these letters you learn and what you heard from the household.”
The protection suffered a blow when Choose Arun Subramanian informed the court docket that he noticed no must stray from the same old sentencing tips:
Mann Act violations of this nature sometimes convey a sentence of just below six years to simply over seven years.
Prosecutors advisable a sentence of greater than 11 years, as a result of abusive nature of Combs’ crimes.
The protection had argued Combs ought to get not more than 14 months, which might have probably had him again on the road as early as at the moment, because the disgraced mogul has been locked up since September of final yr.
Previous to his sentencing, Diddy addressed the court docket for the primary time:
“One of many hardest issues that I’ve needed to deal with is having to be quiet. Not having the ability to specific how sorry I’m for my actions,” Sean “Diddy” Combs stated in his assertion to the court docket.
“I need to personally apologize once more to Cassie Ventura for any hurt or harm that I’ve precipitated her – emotionally or bodily,” he continued, including:
“Rising up as a child, I simply wished to be a shining instance of what we may do,” Combs stated. “I say we, as folks of coloration, that we may personal our personal companies, handle our personal communities, elevate our personal kids, remedy our personal issues, create our personal wealth, handle our personal issues.
“That was my mission. I obtained misplaced. I’m not this unhealthy individual. I’m sorry to my neighborhood for letting y’all down.”
““A historical past of fine works cannot erase the ability and management you had over the ladies you professed to like dearly. You abused them bodily, emotionally and psychologically and also you used that to get your manner,” Choose Subramanian countered in his handle to Combs.
He added that the cour was the court docket was “not assured” that if Combs was launched that “these crimes is not going to be dedicated once more.”
Subsequently, he defined, “a considerable sentence have to be given.”
The decide rejected the prosecution’s request for an 11-year sentence and as a substitute handed down a sentence of fifty months.
We may have additional updates on this growing story as new info turns into out there.
