The China Mail - Sean 'Diddy' Combs acquitted of sex trafficking, convicted on lesser charge

The jury, after 13 hours of deliberation over three days, found Combs guilty of two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution, each of which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.

Combs, 55, smiled and looked relieved as the verdict was read out.

He shook hands with one of his lawyers and said "thank you" to members of the eight-man four-woman jury as they left the courtroom.

Judge Arun Subramanian also thanked the jury for their service before dismissing them.

"You listened, you worked together, you were here every day, rain or shine," he said. "You did so with no reward, other than the reward that comes from answering the call of public service."

The verdict came at the end of a trial in which prosecutors had accused Combs of being the boss of a decades-long criminal group who directed loyal employees and bodyguards to commit myriad offenses at his behest.

The alleged crimes included forced labor, drug distribution, kidnapping, bribery, witness tampering and obstruction and arson.

To find Combs guilty of racketeering, jurors needed to find the existence of a criminal enterprise and that the organization committed at least two of the offenses.

Jurors announced a partial verdict late Tuesday and said they were deadlocked on the racketeering charge but Judge Arun Subramanian instructed them to keep working.

Combs, once one of the most powerful figures in the music industry, had vehemently denied all charges.

- 'Untouchable' -

Jurors began deliberating on Monday after the judge read them nearly three hours of instructions on how to apply the mountain of evidence and testimony in the case to the law.

The trial included at-times disturbing testimony along with thousands of pages of phone, financial and audiovisual records.

Combs was charged with sex trafficking two women: singer Casandra Ventura and a woman who testified under the pseudonym Jane.

Both were in long-term relationships with the entrepreneur and hip hop powerhouse, and they each testified about abuse, threats and coercive sex in wrenching detail.

They both said they felt obligated to participate in Combs-directed sexual marathons with hired men.

Combs's lawyers insisted the sex was consensual. They conceded domestic violence was a feature of his relationships -- one harrowing example of him beating and dragging Ventura was caught on security footage that has been widely publicized.

Yet while disturbing, that did not amount to sex trafficking, the defense said.

But prosecutors in their final argument tore into Combs's team, who they said had "contorted the facts endlessly."

"In his mind he was untouchable," prosecutor Maurene Comey told the court. "The defendant never thought that the women he abused would have the courage to speak out loud what he had done to them."

H.Au--ThChM