Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - Is Sean Combs the New OJ? Diddy To Be Sentenced on 30th Anniversary of OJ Verdict | Crime Alert 07.09.25

Episode Date: July 9, 2025

Sean “Diddy” Combs will be sentenced on October 3 in New York after a federal jury found him guilty on two counts of transporting individuals to engage in prostitution. As new civil suits are piling up, Diddy's male escorts are spilling the tea. Brian Kohberger's signed guilty plea is now public. A California man is behind bars after police say he tried to slip back into the country just days after the body of his missing ex-girlfriend was found. A former MTV 16 and Pregnant star is back in jail in Georgia, charged in a man's fentanyl death just weeks after losing her teenage son. An Indiana man is behind bars for murder after police say he hunted down and killed a sex offender who had been released from prison just weeks earlier for molesting his young family member. Drew Nelson reports.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Crime Alert! Hourly update! Breaking crime news now. I'm Drew Nelson. Sean Diddy Combs will be sentenced on October 3rd in New York after a federal jury found him guilty on two counts of transporting individuals to engage in prostitution. The sentencing date is set after both sides reached an agreement before Tuesday's hearing. Combs' representatives dropped a plan to ask for an earlier sentencing date. Prosecutors plan to argue for a sentence of four to five years. The defense is pushing for a sentence closer to two years, claiming Combs did not profit from prostitution and that any sex acts were between consenting adults. Meanwhile, new

civil lawsuits continue to surface. On Monday, a man using the name John Doe sued Combs for sexual battery and emotional distress. He alleged Combs masturbated into his shirt once worn by the late notorious B.I.G. and threw it on him, saying, quote, rip, Biggie. The suit also claims Combs forced him to take drugs and sexually assaulted him in 2005 and 2007. Another male escort, known during the trial as Don, has spoken publicly now. Don says he had taken part in sex parties with Combs and his girlfriends Cassie and Jane, but claimed he did not know the women were being coerced. On Saturday, a former escort named Clayton Howard, who testified under the name Dave,

filed a $20 million lawsuit against both Combs and Cassie Ventura. Howard says he was drugged, manipulated, and forced into sex acts for nearly a decade. He accused Ventura of giving him an S.D.D., coercing him into unprotected sex, and aborting his child without his knowledge. He also claimed that federal prosecutors ignored Ventura's role in order to focus on convicting Combs. Howard said in a video, quote, The U.S. Attorney's Office is well aware that she was a co-conspirator.

They only cared about getting ditty. Another exotic dancer, Sheree Hayes, who calls himself the Punisher, gave an interview to Radar Online describing his own encounters at freak-offs. He said Combs would watch from behind a headscarf while he had sex with Ventura. In one instance, Combs reportedly got so excited that he threw down a stack of cash mid-act in approval of what he was seeing. Since Combs' acquittal on racketeering charges, the comparisons to the O.J. Simpson trial have grown.

Robert Shapiro, who helped acquit Simpson in 1995, praised Combs' legal team on Fox News Digital for winning, quote, a rare federal acquittal. Harvard law professor and O.J. lawyer Alan Dershowitz agreed, telling Fox, quote, the smart decision was not putting Combs on the witness stand. He called the judge's denial of bail, quote, vindictive and wrong, adding, quote, he was convicted of transactional consensual sex with two adults. And Combs' lawyer, Tenney Garagos, just so happens to be the daughter of O.J. lawyer Mark Garagos.

Combs' sentencing on October 3 comes, coincidentally, on the same day O.J. Simpson was acquitted three decades earlier. For more on the trial of Sean Diddy Combs, follow Crime Stories with Nancy Grace on your favorite podcast app, and join Nancy at her new time, 7 p.m. Eastern, on Merritt Street Media. Check your local listings for channel assignment. More crime and justice news after this. Ryan Coburger's signed confession in the stabbing deaths of four University of Idaho students is now public.

Last Wednesday, Coburger submitted a written statement to the court in Laetaw County, Idaho, confessing to all five felony charges against him. That includes one count of burglary and four counts of first-degree murder. In the signed document, Coburger said he, quote, did unlawfully enter the residence located at 1112 King Road, Moscow, Idaho Idaho with the intent to commit the crime of murder. He also admitted he quote did willfully unlawfully deliberately with premeditation and with malice of forethought kill and murder Madison Mogan, Kaylee Gonzalves, Zana Kurnodle, and Ethan Chapin. Coburger's attorneys said he made the

statement voluntarily without coercion. Sentencing has not yet been scheduled. Under the plea agreement, he avoids the death penalty and does not have to give a detailed confession. A California man is behind bars after police say he tried to slip back into the country just days after the body of his missing ex-girlfriend was found. Martin Mendoza, age 20, was arrested Sunday at the Calexico border crossing. Police say he had fled to Mexico soon after 18-year-old Marisa Di Napoli vanished.

He is not cooperating with authorities. Di Napoli was last seen alive June 29. She had left a home in Morgan Hill that morning with Mendoza, who was her ex-boyfriend. Di Napoli had sent a text to her family the night before saying she was staying with a friend. When she didn't return messages or answer text to her family the night before saying she was staying with a friend. When she didn't return messages or answer calls, her family reported her missing on June 30. On Thursday, police found her body near Anderson Reservoir.

Investigators found footage of Mendoza walking away from the home, again, alone, this time carrying a large bag. Police say he refused to answer questions and disappeared soon after. Denappoli's family blames police for letting him go. They are asking for an outside review of how the case was handled. An Indiana man is jailed for murder after police say he hunted down and killed a sex offender who had been released from prison just weeks earlier for molesting his young family member.

Nicholas Stanley, age 35, is accused of shooting Alan Cogswell, June 24, at the Daylight Inn in Elkhart. Witnesses saw Stanley looking through the window of Cogswell's motel room, holding a gun. Police say he knocked on the door, opened fire, and then fled. Cogswell was found dead inside the room with gunshot wounds to his head and chest. Surveillance footage captured Stanley at the scene. The getaway vehicle was traced

to his father. Police say Stanley first claimed he did not know Cogswell had been released. Stanley later spoke in a jailhouse interview with WBND. I did what I had to. I took him out. I'm just, I'm tired of pretending like I did something wrong. You know, I don't feel like I did anything wrong and there's thousands of people out there that agree with me. Stanley is being held without bond. A former MTV 16 and Pregnant star is back in jail in Georgia charged in a fentanyl death just weeks after losing her own son. Whitney Blake Purvis, age 33, is being held without bond in Floyd County. Police say she gave 37-year-old John Mark Harris a street drug mix known

as Trank, which includes fentanyl and the animal tranquilizer xylazine. He overdosed inside a home in Rome, Georgia on February 16th. Purvis is charged with felony involuntary manslaughter and other crimes. Court records say she did not mean to kill Harris, but that the drugs that she gave him, quote, directly contributed to his death. Just a month earlier, June 2, Purvis lost her son Weston Owen Gosa, Jr. at age 16. After his death, Purvis accused her ex-partner Weston Gosa, Sr. of neglecting the boy's medical needs.

She said Weston, Jr. had health problems and no insurance. She also said Gosa blocked her from attending the funeral. Weston's stepmother later told the media that Purvis hadn't spoken to her son in years and arrived late to the funeral service. Purvis appeared on MTV's 16 and Pregnant in 2009. Before her arrest, she commented on John Mark Harris's online obituary, quote, thank you for being such a great friend to me and always making me feel beautiful and cared for. For the latest crime and justice news, follow Crime Alert Hourly Update on your favorite

podcast app. With this Crime Alert, I'm Drew Nelson.