Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs asks decide for ‘mercy’ forward of sentencing

Sean “Diddy” Combs, who faces greater than 20 years in jail following a blockbuster trial that noticed the music mogul accused of harrowing crimes, on Thursday (Oct 2) requested the decide figuring out his destiny for “mercy” and “another chance”.

Following two months of testimony and arguments within the New York federal case, jurors rejected essentially the most severe expenses of intercourse trafficking and racketeering, sparing the 55-year-old the prospect of life in jail.

But he nonetheless faces upwards of 20 years behind bars for his conviction on two prostitution-related counts.

Late Thursday, his legal professionals submitted a letter signed by Combs by which he informed Judge Arun Subramanian he was “scared to death” to be away from his household and vowed he “will never commit a crime again”.

“This has been the hardest 2 years of my life, and I have no one to blame for my current reality and situation but myself,” Combs wrote within the three-and-a-half web page letter.

The once-powerful hip-hop innovator apologised for bodily assaulting Casandra Ventura, his former girlfriend for greater than a decade, who testified of grotesque beatings in addition to devastating emotional and sexual abuse he inflicted on her.

“The scene and images of me assaulting Cassie play over and over in my head daily. I literally lost my mind. I was dead wrong for putting my hands on the woman that I loved,” he wrote.

Ventura stated in a earlier letter she had moved her household out of the New York space for worry of “retribution” if Combs walks free.

He additionally apologised for having “hurt” a girl who testified underneath the pseudonym Jane, who additionally described abuse in wrenching element over their years-long relationship.

Both ladies stated that Combs, with the assistance of his employees and interior circle, coerced them into performing so-called “freak-offs”: sexual marathons with employed males that Combs directed and generally filmed.

Combs didn’t point out these cases within the letter. 

‘BROKEN TO MY CORE’

His defence has insisted the intercourse was consensual and the violence home abuse. They satisfied jurors the generally days-long occasions didn’t meet the authorized threshold for essentially the most severe expenses Combs confronted.

But jurors did discover that he violated a federal statute that makes it unlawful to move individuals throughout state strains for prostitution.

“I am so sorry for the hurt that I caused, but I understand that the mere words ‘I’m sorry’ will never be good enough as these words alone cannot erase the pain from the past,” Combs stated in his letter to the decide.

He blamed his behaviour on medicine, extra and “selfishness” and stated his greater than a yr in a infamous Brooklyn jail left him “reborn”.

“Prison will change you or kill you – I choose to live,” he wrote.

He cited his rags-to-riches story within the leisure business and his childhood trauma of dropping his father to homicide. Combs described abhorrent jail situations, interior work on himself that is led to a “spiritual reset”, his sobriety, and the optimistic relationships he is tried to construct with fellow inmates.

Combs’s defence workforce says he must be launched earlier than the top of 2025. 

The prosecution says he’s “unrepentant” and a public menace who ought to serve at the least a decade extra. Several of his victims have written letters to the decide to that impact.

During Friday’s sentencing listening to legal professionals in addition to at the least one witness known as by the prosecution is anticipated to deal with the courtroom. 

And Combs is anticipated to talk on to the decide.

His letter provided a preview of what will be anticipated.

“I ask you for mercy today, not only for my sake, but for the sake of my children,” he wrote. “I can’t change the past, but I can change the future.”

“I have been humbled and broken to my core.”