ALBAWABA - Music mogul Sean Combs sentenced to 50 months in prison.
Sean Combs was given 50 months in jail by a federal judge on Friday. The music mogul, who is 55 years old, was found guilty in July of two counts of transportation for prostitution but not guilty of the more serious charges of sex trafficking and racketeering plot.
Judge Arun Subramanian said that a harsh sentence was needed to "send a message to abusers and victims alike that exploitation and violence against women is met with real accountability." This came after a day-long hearing in which Combs spoke to the judge for the first time during the trial.
After hearing from federal officials, Sean Combs' defense lawyers, and Combs himself, Subramanian made his decision. The lawyers for his defense said that their client shouldn't get more than 14 months in prison. He'll be free by the end of the year since he already did his time. On the other hand, federal officials asked Subramanian to give Combs a prison sentence of at least 11 years and 3 months.
Sean Combs (Photo by Dia Dipasupil / Getty Images via AFP)
Ever since he was caught in September, Combs has been locked up in a Brooklyn jail. The eight-week trial ended with the sentencing hearing. During that time, there was emotional testimony, celebrity appearances, and a courtroom packed with Combs' fans, social media influencers, and reporters. Federal prosecutors spent six weeks putting together a complicated and sometimes confusing case against Sean Combs. They said he ran a criminal group that helped commit and hide sex crimes for decades. Their two main witnesses, singer Cassie Ventura and a woman who appeared under the name "Jane," told the court that Combs set them up on dates and then forced them to have drug-fueled sex marathons with male escorts over and over again.
King Combs and Raven Tracy (Photo by TIMOTHY A.CLARY / AFP)
A lot of the trial, Sean Combs' defense team used text message evidence to show that Ventura and Jane seemed to agree to the meetings and help plan them, which was meant to discredit the women's testimony. The prosecution called more than twenty witnesses, including former workers of Combs, federal agents, and friends of the alleged victims. The defense did not call any witnesses and ended its case in less than thirty minutes. In the end, Combs was found not guilty of sex trafficking and the racketeering plot, but they did find him guilty of taking Jane and Ventura across state lines to have commercial sex.
Even though Sean Combs was found not guilty of the most serious charges, no one, not even his lawyers, denied that he hurt people. Watching the video from 2016 of Combs hitting Ventura in a hotel hallway was a key piece of evidence in the case. During the trial, Combs' lawyers admitted that their client had a past of domestic violence, but they said the government wasn't charging him for those crimes.
At the hearing on Friday, prosecutors said that Combs' violent behavior was proof that he should get a longer term.
