Jurors have reached a verdict on the sex-trafficking and prostitution charges against Sean “Diddy” Combs, but have not yet announced the decision as they remain deadlocked on the disgraced rap mogul’s racketeering count.
The jury deliberated for two days before sending a note on Tuesday evening (July 1) saying they’d decided a partial verdict but that there were members with “unpersuadable opinions on both sides” as to whether Combs ran a criminal enterprise, according to CNN. Judge Arun Subramanian instructed the jury to keep working when they return on Wednesday morning (July 2).
“I ask that you keep deliberating,” said the judge.
The jury will not reveal what their verdict is on the sex-trafficking and prostitution charges until deliberations have concluded. The first count deals with allegations that Combs used violence, money and blackmail to force women to have marathon sex with escorts, and the second claims he transported sex workers across state lines for the hotel parties called “freak-offs.”
The charge that remains undecided, racketeering, alleges that Combs and his underlings operated a criminal syndicate as defined by the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act — the federal “RICO” statute often deployed against mobsters and cartels. To find Combs guilty of this charge, the jury must find that the rapper and his associates committed at least two other crimes, which could include sex trafficking and prostitution, but also bribery, drug-dealing and arson.
Combs’ potential prison sentence varies depending on how the verdict shakes out. Sex trafficking is the most severe, as it carries a mandatory minimum prison term of 15 years and a maximum of life in prison.
The two prostitution counts against Combs each subject him to between zero and 10 years in prison. The RICO charge carries zero to 20 years, although the maximum gets raised to life in prison if sex trafficking is determined to be one of his underlying crimes.
Combs has denied all the charges, claiming his sex life was always consensual.
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