The jury in the Sean Combs case sent the judge a note today indicating that they had reached a verdict on four of the five charges against him. However, on the remaining charge they said they saw no possibility of progress because some jurors had fixed opinions.
The jury, comprising eight men and four women, said there were members “with unpersuadable opinions on both sides” on the racketeering count. After deliberating for more than 12 hours, they reached a verdict on the four other counts in the case, two each of sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution.
Mr. Combs has pleaded not guilty to all charges, and his lawyers have denied that any of his sexual activities with the women in the trial were nonconsensual.
After the jurors alerted the court to the partial verdict at about 4:05 p.m. on Tuesday, Judge Arun Subramanian, who is presiding over the case, brought them into the courtroom and encouraged them to continue their discussions.
Here are the five counts Combs is facing.
- Count 1: Racketeering conspiracy
- Count 2: Sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion – pertains to Victim 1 (Cassie Ventura)
- Count 3: Transportation to engage in prostitution – pertains to Victim 1 (Cassie Ventura) and commercial sex workers
- Count 4: Sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion – pertains to Victim 2 (“Jane”)
- Count 5: Transportation to engage in prostitution – pertains to Victim 2 (“Jane”) and commercial sex workers
The jury indicated they had reached a verdict on counts 2-5 but could not reach a verdict on Count 1, he racketeering charge. Looking around it seems this did not come as a surprise to network legal experts. Here’s what NBC News’ Danny Cevallos said:
The partial verdict is not a shocker to me — if the verdicts on counts 2 through 5 are guilty. Anything else on counts 2 through 5 would be a surprise. I expected a relatively quick verdict on all but racketeering conspiracy, in part because that count was always the most complicated.
Based on the reaction in the courtroom, it seems likely Combs’ lawyers also saw this as bad news.
When the jury first sent its note about its partial verdict, there was no sign in the courtroom of the seriousness of the message; previous notes from the jury over the previous day and a half had concerned legal details.
But within minutes, Mr. Combs slumped in his chair. Eight of his lawyers huddled around him, all of them looking grim. Mr. Combs appeared somber, his head bowed and his hands folded in his lap. His lawyers passed the jury’s note around, closely scrutinizing it.
Count 1 is the most complicated. Here’s what they have to find in order to find Combs guilty on Count 1:
To convict Combs on the racketeering conspiracy count, jurors must find that he and a co-conspirator committed two predicate acts within 10 years, according to the verdict sheet given to the jury.
Those acts include:
- Acts involving kidnapping
- Acts involving arson
- Acts involving bribery
- Acts involving witness tampering
- Acts involving forced labor
- Acts involving sex trafficking
- Acts involving transportation for purposes of prostitution
- Acts involving drug distribution
As I’ve said many times I’m not an attorney but I think we can apply a little logic here. First, it seems pretty obvious that the jury must have found Combs guilty on counts 2-5 because if they hadn’t then count 1 would be a quick not guilty as well and this would all be over. They are stuck on convicting him of the more complex charge, not the simpler ones.
However, if you look at the requirements to find him guilty on count 1 and then look back at counts 2-5 you’ll see an obvious overlap. Counts 2 and 4 are sex trafficking and counts 3 and 5 are transportation to engage in prostitution. To find him guilty on count 1 he only has to be guilty of conspiring to carry out “two predicate acts” on the list. So I think that means any two of counts 2-5 should be enough.
But if they’ve found him guilty on all four then where is the confusion about count 1 coming from?
I don’t know but it sounds like there is at least one juror unwilling to find Combs guilty of a conspiracy even though they seem to have gone along with finding him guilty of the underlying elements necessary to prove the conspiracy.
The judge had a choice to make at this point. He could have asked the jury to report their results on charges 2-5 at which point those would become fixed. But he didn’t do that. Instead he just called them in and asked them to please return to the jury room and keep deliberating. A little while after that they jury sent a note saying they were done for the day but would return tomorrow to keep trying.
