Three months ago, Sean “Diddy” Combs fell to his knees in a Manhattan courtroom after a New York jury acquitted him of charges of sex trafficking and racketeering.
“I’m coming home,” he said, turning around to face his family, who had supported him every day of the trial.
On Friday, a subdued version of the hip-hop mogul sat emotionless and still in his chair, as the judge sentenced him to over four years in prison.
After Judge Arun Subramanian finished reading his sentence, the rapper turned around to look at his family and appeared to mouth the words: “I love you, I’m sorry.”
It was a quiet moment to mark the end of a chaotic eight-week trial that forever altered the public’s image of Combs, once one of the world’s most famous rappers. The jury saw graphic videos of Combs’ so-called “freak offs” – sex parties he had filmed featuring hired male escorts and his ex Cassandra Ventura and “Jane”, an anonymous victim. They also saw a video that had previously gone viral of him beating Ventura in a hotel hallway.
In July, a panel of 12 New Yorkers acquitted Combs, 55, of sex trafficking and racketeering charges, which carried the potential of life in prison, but found him guilty of transportation to engage in prostitution.
His attorneys hoped he would be out of prison in a matter of weeks, asking the court for a sentence of 14 months, 13 of which he had already served.
Prosecutors had accused Combs of running a criminal enterprise to coerce women into unwanted and drug-fuelled sex acts. Although he had been acquitted of those most serious of those charges, sex-trafficking and racketeering, they had asked for a sentence of over 11 years in prison.
Ultimately, Judge Subramanian told a downcast Combs that his crimes and abuse of his ex-girlfriends warranted 50 months in prison.
As he told the court that Combs had used his fame and power to “subjugate” his victims, the music mogul did not look up, remaining expressionless for the judge’s 20-minute speech. His entourage of over 30 family members were packed in the courtroom behind him.
During the all-day hearing, the court listened to hours of speeches from several of his attorneys, his children, a pastor and a criminal justice reform advocate who told the court that Combs was a changed and sober man since detention.
They also watched a video compilation from his legal team showing him with his children as well as the funeral of his former girlfriend Kim Porter, the mother of some of his children who died in 2018.
But the court did not hear from the victims themselves, after one person who planned to speak, Mia, a former assistant of Combs who testified anonymously, pulled out after the defence wrote a letter calling her a liar.
Subramanian called the letter “inappropriate”, and thanked the “strong women” for coming forward with the allegations against Combs, telling them they weren’t “just speaking to 12 men and women in the jury box”.
In lieu of their own statements on Friday, Subramanian read several of the victims’ remarks from testimony, telling Combs: “These were serious offences that irreparably harmed two women.”
Combs himself addressed the court for the first time since the beginning of his trial.
Breathing a large sigh before standing to read his speech, he pleaded with the judge for “mercy”.
He read with glasses from a piece of paper in front of him, trying to maintain eye contact with the judge as he told him: “I have nobody to blame but myself.”
He broke into tears as he turned around to face his family and tell his mother: “I failed you as a son.”
It was not the first time tears were shed during the hearing.
Many of Combs’ supporters cried as six of his seven children came to the podium to ask the judge for a light sentence, telling him they needed their father. The three daughters and three sons huddled together with their arms wrapped around each other as several of them cried while speaking to the judge.
The judge said during his sentencing that he had taken into consideration Combs’ family ties, but said he also had to take into account the damage he had caused to his two victims.
The crimes were serious, he added, noting they took place even after a federal investigation and the leak of a video showing him beating Ventura in the hallway of a hotel.
“A history of good works can’t wash away your record,” he said.
But, he told a dismayed Combs, who twice tilted his head up and sighed, there was light at the end of his jail sentence.
“Mr Combs, you and your family, you are going to get through this,” he said.
When the judge was done giving his speech, Combs gave a quick nod to his dozens of family members and friends, before slipping quietly back through the door to be taken back to a federal jail in Brooklyn.
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs
