By Ebi Kesiena
Hip-hop mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs has been sentenced to 50 months in prison after being found guilty of prostitution-related offences.
Prosecutors had sought an 11-year term, but Judge Arun Subramanian handed down just over four years following an emotional, daylong hearing on Friday.
Defence lawyers had asked for a significantly lighter sentence of 14 months, effectively time served, arguing that the 55-year-old music icon had already spent more than a year in custody in Brooklyn, according to CNN.
Before his sentencing, Combs addressed the court, apologising and asking for leniency. “I am truly sorry,” he said. “I ask your honour for mercy. I beg your honour for mercy.”
In July, a jury acquitted Combs of the most severe counts, sex trafficking and racketeering but found him guilty of two charges of transporting individuals across state lines for prostitution.
His former girlfriend, singer Casandra Ventura, popularly known as Cassie, submitted a powerful letter to the court, urging the judge to remember “the many lives that Sean Combs has upended with his abuse and control.”
Ventura detailed years of alleged physical, emotional, and sexual abuse during their relationship. Alongside another woman identified as Jane, she claimed she was forced into “freak-offs”, sexual encounters with hired men that Combs allegedly arranged and sometimes recorded.
“The entire courtroom watched actual footage of Combs kicking and beating me as I tried to run away from a freak off in 2016,” Ventura wrote, adding that she still suffers nightmares and flashbacks “on a regular, everyday basis.”
Prosecutor Christy Slavik argued that Combs had failed to show genuine remorse. “His remorse was qualified. It’s as though he thinks the law doesn’t apply to him,” she told the court, adding that he had even booked speaking engagements in Miami ahead of sentencing, an act she described as “the height of hubris.”
However, defence attorney Nicole Westmoreland portrayed Combs as “an inspiration” to the Black community and a long-time advocate for social justice.
“No, Combs is not larger than life. He’s just a human being. He’s made mistakes,” she said, insisting he was remorseful and arguing, “It’s of no benefit to anyone to warehouse him in a prison.”
Combs’s six children also pleaded for leniency. His eldest son, Quincy Brown, described him as “a changed man,” while his daughter, D’Lila Combs, made a tearful appeal to the judge: “Please, please give our family the chance to heal together. Not as headlines but as human beings.”
