Diddy trial live: Judge denies defence mistrial request over destroyed fingerprint evidence
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- Sex trafficking trial of Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs resumes for 11th day in ManhattanDiddy’s ex Cassie gives birth to third child two weeks after testifyingDiddy’s legal team denied mistrial over destroyed evidence Stylist recalls moment ‘enraged’ Combs beat Cassie in LA flatAnd says he ‘threatened to send Cassie sex video to her parents’LAPD officer describes burglary call to Kid Cudi’s houseFire officer found ‘Molotov cocktail’ inside Kid Cudi’s carLive reporting by Lara Keay
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- Watch: Full hotel attack video – showing Combs in towelFrom raids to arrest: How has case unfolded? Breakdown of charges – and possible sentence
20:01:01 Stylist’s internship with Diddy’s label kickstarted his career
Nash is answering questions about his career styling celebrity clients.
Diddy’s attorney Xavier Donaldson asks if it was his client giving him an internship with his company Bad Boy Records that kickstarted his career.
Nash agrees – but says that he introduced himself to Cassie – not Diddy.
19:49:19 Stylist not considering own lawsuit against Diddy
Diddy’s attorney returns to Deonte Nash’s interactions with authorities throughout the case.
Nash reiterates his earlier comments that he is only giving evidence because he was issued a subpoena, and does not want to be in court.
He says he has met with prosecutors several times, always with an attorney present – and that he has always been cooperative.
Donaldson asks whether Nash has filed his own lawsuit against Diddy – given his claims he was violent towards him.
Nash says he hasn’t – and isn’t considering doing so.
“No, I am focused on getting out of here,” he says.
19:43:08 Cassie gives birth
Away from the courtroom, we are getting reports from Sky’s US partner network NBC News that Cassie Ventura has given birth to her third child.
A source close to the matter confirmed the birth in a statement to NBC.
As we’ve been reporting, Cassie, a singer and model, is the key witness in the trial against her former partner.
Over four days in the first week of the hearing, she gave evidence alleging he had subjected her to years of physical, sexual and emotional abuse during their on-off relationship of 11 years.
When Cassie testified, she was eight months pregnant, and she was seen rubbing her belly in court.
Cassie announced her pregnancy on Instagram earlier this year. She already has two children with her husband, Alex Fine, who she married in 2019.
19:40:34 Not likely second alleged victim will give evidence today
Everyone is back in court after that quick break and one of Diddy’s attorneys Xavier Donaldson is up to cross-examine stylist Deonte Nash.
udge Arun Subramanian interrupts to say proceedings will overrun slightly to finish stylist Deonte Nash’s evidence – as he has a plane to catch this evening.
It’s unlikely Mia, the second alleged victim in the case, will start giving evidence today, he adds.
19:27:09 Stylist ‘doesn’t hate’ Diddy despite all he witnessed
Before a quick break from proceedings, lead prosecutor Maurene Comey asks stylist Deonte Nash how he feels about Diddy, given all he witnessed.
Nash replies: “I don’t hate him.”
Pressed on why, he says simply: “It’s just not me.”
The judge then calls a five-minute break.
19:20:39 Cassie didn’t want to leave her 29th birthday party to ‘freak off’ at hotel
Now Nash is recalling Cassie’s 29th birthday party.
Diddy planned a surprise party for her – but the pair left prematurely, he says.
Nash claims that as they were leaving, Diddy said “f*** you” and that “all of this for you – and you can’t just do one thing for me”.
The stylist recalls Cassie telling him: “He’s just mad I don’t want to go to the hotel and freak off with him.”
Nash says Cassie wanted to go back inside the party – and not go to the hotel where she’d be forced to engage in sex acts.
19:09:57 Diddy choked stylist and threatened him not to go out with Cassie without him
Diddy was also violent towards Nash, he says.
He says it happened “a few times”, recalling one in particular in 2013 when he was smoking against the side of his car and Diddy threw him towards the vehicle and choked him.
He told him: “Y’all can’t go out without my permission.”
Earlier, Nash said Diddy tried to ban Cassie from going out without him.
Nash tells the prosecutor he didn’t report the violence for fear of retaliation.
He did tell Kristina Khorrum, Diddy’s then chief-of-staff, he says, who said she would speak to the rapper – but the violence continued.
19:07:11 Details of other violent incidents
In a separate line of questioning, Comey asks Nash how many times Diddy slapped Cassie in the face.
Nash says he saw it happen once in a car park before the premiere of the film The Perfect Match in 2015.
He video called her around that time and she had a black eye, he recalls.
Probed about how often he saw Cassie with bruises, he replies: “Quite often”.
On a separate occasion in Las Vegas, he saw her with two black eyes, he adds.
19:01:25 Cassie threatened to ‘go over the balcony’ when Diddy came looking for her
To get Cassie away from Diddy, Nash ordered her a taxi, he tells the prosecutor.
But he then came to his house and started asking “where the f*** is she”, looking everywhere in the flat – from the wardrobe to the oven.
At that point, Cassie called Nash’s phone, and he demanded they drive to her flat to find her.
Once they got there, Nash went up to her bedroom, he says.
He recalls her looking “frightened” and told her that Diddy was downstairs waiting for her.
At this point, Nash claims Cassie said she was going to “go over the balcony”.
18:56:53 Videos Diddy threatened to leak were of Cassie and other men
After threatening to release explicit videos of her, Diddy told her he was the only person who was protecting her, Nash recalls.
He says she was in tears as the pair drove away.
Nash tried to reassure her that releasing the videos would also see Diddy exposed – but Cassie pointed out he didn’t feature – and that it was just her with other men.
Comey intervenes to ask what Cassie said about having sex with other men.
Nash replies simply: “That she didn’t want to.”