The Rise and Fall of Diddy - Witnesses to the System: 3

Episode Date: September 30, 2025

Four witnesses. One alleged system. From a shaken assistant to a platinum-selling artist, a trusted aide to a loyal stylist, their stories map a system of control prosecutors say was designed not just to hurt, but to silence. Featuring interviews with Candace Kelley, Safa Robinson-Ferrer, and Afi Patterson.—-Host - Jesse WeberReporter - Elizabeth MillnerExecutive Producer - Jessica LowtherWriter and Producer - Cooper MollAssociate Producer - Tess Jagger-WellsEdit and Sound Design - Anna McClainGuest Booking - Diane Kaye & Alyssa FisherAdditional Production Support - Juliana Battaglia & Stefanie DoucetteLegal review - Elizabeth VulajKey art - Sean PanzeraSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

You're listening to a long crime series available exclusively on Wondery Plus. To listen to the remaining episodes, join Wondry Plus and enjoy ad-free listening to over 50,000 episodes, including more thrilling long crime series like new episodes of Karen the retrial and sidebar with Jesse Weber. Join Wondry Plus in the Wondery app, Spotify, or Apple Podcasts. This podcast is a long crime production. It covers ongoing legal proceedings related to the federal trial of. Sean Diddy Combs. The content may include graphic descriptions of alleged sexual acts, violence, abuse, and drug use. These topics may be disturbing or triggering for some listeners. Listener discretion is strongly advised. The allegations discussed are based on court documents,

public testimony, and media reporting. Sean Combs is presumed innocent unless and until proving guilty in a court of law. The views expressed in this podcast are for informational and journalistic purposes only, and do not constitute legal advice or a judgment on the outcome of the case. The legal experts and attorneys interviewed are not actively involved in this case. Before the testimony, before the cross-examinations, before the allegations of violence, coercion, and control, there's a line that stretches around the block. They want to come here and see justice done. They're taking off from work. They're getting up at 5 a.m. to be there. every day. At 500 Pearl Street, it's part trial, part true crime theater, and part

tourist stop. I spoke into people from Sweden and Japan and Denmark. Why? Because they're going to see the Statue of Liberty, and then they're going over to Brooklyn and Harlem, and then they're also coming down to see this case. Inside the main courtroom, silence is law. But in the spillover room, there's space to react. In the spillover room, you're really, really able to hear the public and what they have to say and get a sense of what a potential jury member might have to say. And really, they just want to see Diddy. There is a camera that is used where you can see what's going on in the room. And you can't really see anybody that well except for in the witness box. But then you can see a speck of a man who has a gray

beard and hair that's all gray. And to many, that's enough. It's a front row seat to an unfolding reckoning. It's really interesting to watch them, watch Sean Combs. Today, behind the spectacle, testimony that maps a system, four witnesses that build a progression from motive to method to momentum. I'm Jesse Weber, and this is the rise and fall of Diddy, the federal trial. years old when he landed the job, assistant to one of the biggest names in music, someone he idolized, Sean Diddy Combs. At first, it felt like a dream. He was flying private, sitting in boardrooms, living at the center of celebrity power. But what he saw from that vantage point

on jets, mansions, behind closed doors would eventually become the reason he left. So George Kaplan, he was a former assistant to Diddy, and I thought his testimony was really important because he came across as a really quality witness. He wasn't one of those witnesses that we've seen who has worked for a did he before experienced abuse or witnessed the abuse and left and gone back. He left and did not go back. Kaplan took the stand under subpoena,

compelled by an immunity order to testify, even if what he said might incriminate himself. Criminal defense attorney Afi Patterson says his testimony pulled jurors and sighed the inner workings of Combs' life. where personal chaos bled into professional routine. I think his testimony also establishes the workplace practices. He didn't get very much sleep.

A lot of his work crossed the line from the actual business, running bad boy or whatever part of bad boy or aspect of the Combs enterprise that he worked as a part of. It just crossed over from actual work into personal life. He establishes that Diddy definitely commingled or intermingled a lot of his professional and personal life. And he also, I think, emphasized that the Diddy team was there to, and we're going to hit on Rico, protect, preserve, and promote the reputation of Diddy and his enterprises and all his ventures. He described handling cash drops.

Tens of thousands and bags handed off mid-flight, cleaning hotel rooms slick with baby oil, strewn with drugs, managing schedules one moment, tracking down over-the-counter lotions to reduce swelling the next, but the real rupture came with what he witnessed. Kaplan said it was the second half of 2015, aboard Combs' private jet to Las Vegas. He was seated at a table, his back to a partition. Behind it, Cassie and Combs. He heard glass shatter. He turned and saw Cassie on the floor, on her back, legs lifted to create space between

her and Combs, who stood over her holding a second rocksglass in the air. Then came her scream. isn't anybody seeing this? Kaplan didn't move. Neither did anyone else on the flight. He looked away, and moments later, more glass crashing. He testified that after the plane landed, the group went straight to a hotel. Combs got ready for a club appearance.

Cassie came later. No one said a word. That silence extended beyond the flight. Another time, Kaplan said he was summoned to Combs' bedroom. inside Cassie sat on the bed, head in her hands. She was crying. On her face, bruising just above her right eye. Kaplan didn't ask what happened. Combs told them to go to CVS, pick up witch hazel and other supplies, items later combined into a homemade anti-swelling treatment. Kaplan paid for them using his corporate credit card. The most disturbing moment Kaplan said came not long after in Miami. At Combs' home,

on Star Island. He said he saw the music mogul throwing green apples at another girlfriend, Gina. Hard. Gina shielded herself with her arms. Kaplan left the room. He didn't intervene. Later that night, Combs buzzed him over the intercom asking for his medicine bag. Kaplan brought it to the bedroom. Gina was still there, standing in the corner, far from Combs. Kaplan handed over the bag and left. Here's Patterson again. He saw the abuse where Diddy was throwing apples very, very hard at Gina. And he said before, the reason why he didn't intervene is because his job was at risk. He was working for an icon.

We know he called Diddy a god amongst men. From his guest house on the property, Captain later heard shouting near the front gate. Gina's voice, male voices, whom he believed was security. She was trying to leave, but he didn't get involved. So he had a really crazy, wild, amazing opportunity that he didn't want to jeopardy. by intervening. He didn't call police. He didn't confront Combs.

But the next morning, he told Christina Quorum, one of Combs' top aides, everything, the flight, the bruises, the apples. She was saddened, but nothing changed. Something that struck me as interesting throughout this testimony is the type of people that did he hires and the type of relationships that he does carve out with these people. It's people who need him, people who want to please him, and people who want to protect him, people who see him as this huge, great king, this master of industry, but still someone who is just a sweetheart, someone who's a little misguided, someone who just needs a little extra love, someone who needs to be understood, because they're so misunderstood. Kaplan's breaking point came weeks later. His father was diagnosed with cancer, combined with the abuse, the secrecy, the complicity, it was too much.

He gave notice and left by the end of the year. And here's what made Kaplan's testimony resonate. He didn't claim to be a hero. He admitted he didn't intervene, that he compartmentalized everything, that he told Combs he was leaving to care for his dad, not because of what he had witnessed. But in court, under oath, he came back to say what he saw. He was a really, really important witness, and I'd say again, a quality witness because when he reached his line and he decided he wasn't going to cross it, he left and did not go back. Hello, I'm John Robbins, comedian and host of Wondery's How Do You Cope podcast? I'm also, plot twist, an alcoholic. I've written a book, Thirst, 12 drinks that changed my life, published by Penguin.

Thirst is a book about alcohol. It's mystery. It's terror. It's havoc. It's strange meditations. But John, I hear you cry. Isn't that a rather odd book to write for a sober man who more than anything wants to stop thinking about alcohol? Well, yes, but I had to go back to find out why the one thing I know will kill me still calls out across the night. It's the story of what alcohol did for me and what alcohol did to me. If that's of interest to you or someone you know, thirst, 12 drinks that changed my life, is available to pre-order now, online and from all good bookshops. Not just the alleged violence, but the infrastructure around it. Kaplan's testimony pointed inward, the secrecy and the silence.

But the next witness would come from outside that world. Scott McCutty, better known to millions as Kid Cuddy, wasn't part of the inner circle. He hadn't shown up in earlier headlines or on podcasts or on league court documents. He hadn't sought out the spotlight. But now, the spotlight had found him. And when he took the stand, he didn't come for drama or fanfare. He came because he had to. Legal analyst Candace Kelly was in the courtroom.

This is a guy who doesn't need the money or 15 minutes of fame. In fact, we hadn't heard anything from him. All we heard was a confirmation in various reports that, yes, at some point, his car did have a Molotop cocktail thrown on it. He was an interesting witness because he had nothing to gain. You know, he was just like, listen, I'm just here to tell my truth. I actually, you know, don't even want to be here, but here I am, I was subpoenaed. What Kid Cuddy told the jury wasn't just emotional. It was evidence the kind the prosecution needed to turn a pattern of abuse into a racketeering case,

a firebombing and a break-in. A warning, prosecutors argued, about what could happen if you got between Sean Combs and Cassie Ventura. Here's legal analyst Safa Robinson Ferrer on why Cuddy's testimony mattered so much to the prosecution's case. Kit Cuddy is most certainly one of the prosecution's star witnesses on the RICO charge and the indictment. And the reason is is because he can testify to his vehicle being set on fire, essentially the arson that they need to prove as one of the underlying predicate offenses.

He has firsthand direct knowledge about the arson of his vehicle. The story began in December 2011. Cuddy had begun seeing Cassie. He testified that he believed she should. and Combs were no longer involved. But soon, he learned that wasn't entirely true. And Combs, according to Cuddy, was already aware of their romance. What followed, Cuddy said, was something out of a movie, except it wasn't.

Mr. Combs and some members of his entourage went to his home and seemingly broke into his home and ransacked a number of things, locked his dog in the bathroom. They were looking for him. Not only that, but during that time, Mr. Ms. Cuddy calls Mr. Combs and says to him, where the F.R. You, I'm looking for you. He wanted to fight him. And so between that phone call to Mr. Combs and a short time thereafter, he ultimately decides to call 911 before the situation truly gets out of hands. The jury heard that during the break-in, one of Combs' confidants Capricorn Clark called Cuddy.

Cassie was also on the move, reportedly being ushered out for her safety. It could have ended there. But according to Muscuddy, it didn't. His Porsche was set on fire, and he believed, or he had reason to believe that Mr. Combs was behind that. The car had been parked outside his home. The fire bombing was never publicly solved. But in court, it became something more than a headline. It became part of a pattern. So it looks like, for me, the prosecution really has a gold card in their hands with Cassie and with Kid Cuddy.

because what it looks like overall is that, hey, I am trying to go out with someone else besides Sean. But Sean has made it clear to me that violence will ensue if I leave him. And that shows this overall force in the air at all times. Don't go with anybody. Not only will you be hurt and I will continue to hit you, guess what? I might blow up somebody's car. And then when it happened, I got to tell you, that was just really, opening because you have that testimony and it all marries together to see the pictures of his

Porsche blown up and just burnt and dark and the windows were all black. Really, really incredible because that's exactly what Sean Combs, according to Cassie Binshora, said he would do. Combs, for his part, has denied orchestrating any such attack. Muscuddy testified that the two eventually met at Soho House in L.A. years after the incident, where they talked about Cassie, aired grievances, and parted on what seemed like respectful terms. But when Cuddy asked about his car, Mr. Combs' response was,

I don't know what you're talking about. It all added up to more than just jealousy. It was the prosecution argued about control. I think it's hard for people to understand how Diddy could share someone that he supposedly loves with multiple prostitutes, multiple men, in some very interesting sexual situations. Yet, when Cassie moves on or apparently tries to leave and go to another man, he's all of a sudden hurt and jealous.

I don't think that's it at all. I think it's she's moving on to not a prostitute because that wouldn't bother him, but she's moving on to someone who could empower her, who could see who she is as a woman, as a human being and as a gifted and talented person, who could help her get away from him and sever ties with him. That's what made him upset. That's what hurt his feelings. That's what shook him to the core. Her finding somebody who may say, hey, you don't have to do this.

Kelly says it was the simplicity of Cuddy's testimony that made it land even harder. Just a man in plain clothes telling jurors what happened. Even the fact that he came in with a leather jacket and some jeans. means, he wasn't trying to impress anyone. He just was coming in. It looked like to tell his truth. It's like he just came in because he had to. And again, because he's a well-off man in his own right, nothing to gain. And I think that that was very, very important for the jury to see. Starstruck, certainly. But after a while, you kind of like, you know what? Why would he'd be lying. No one knows exactly what jurors thought of Cuddy's account, but his presence,

his Porsche, his fear were now baked into the story the government was telling, that what happened to Scott Muscutty wasn't just retaliation. It was a message. But who was that message really for? Because it wasn't just about a car, and it wasn't just about Kid Cuddy. Cassie really is playing a couple of men here. That is something. to be discussed. But the stronger argument is that she was trying to get away, and she actually did. She had a relationship with Kid Cuddy. But as soon as Sean found out, according to her, and according to Kid Cuddy, that's when Sean Combs jumped in and said, this isn't going to happen. In the government's telling, this is where it all begins to connect. Cassie Ventura

wasn't just a former girlfriend. She was central, named in the civil suit, echoed in the indictment, and reappearing again and again through the testimony of those who had worked around her, lived beside her, or tried to help her leave. Her relationship with Cuddy was brief, but according to both of them, it triggered a violent reaction that, according to prosecutors, wasn't a one-time event. It was part of a system. A system allegedly built to intimidate, retaliate, and isolate.

The same system that Cassie described in her lawsuit, where Combs allegedly use physical violence, coercive control, and threats to prevent her from leaving. And that's where Robinson Ferrer says, Kid Cuddy's testimony becomes something more than just personal narrative. It becomes part of the pattern. I'm John Robbins, and on my podcast, I sit down with incredible people to ask the very simple question,

how do you cope? From confronting grief and mental health struggles, to finding strength in failure. Every episode is a raw and honest exploration of what it means to be human. It's not always easy, but it's always real. Whether you're looking for inspiration, comfort or just a reminder that you're not alone in life's messier moments,

join me on How Do You Cope? Follow now wherever you get your podcasts, or listen to episodes early and ad-free on Wondery Plus. How Do You Cope is brought to you by Audible, who make it easy to embark on a wellness journey that fits your life, with thousands of audiobooks, guided meditations, and motivational series. He is a critical witness that the prosecution needs in order to lay the foundation or establish the element of the offense to prove Mr. Combs guilty of the RICO charge.

Under the RICO statute, prosecutors aren't just required to prove that Combs committed isolated crimes. They have to show a criminal enterprise. a coordinated structure where acts of violence, threats, drug distribution, and financial fraud weren't just spontaneous outbursts, but part of an ongoing scheme. That's why they brought in witnesses like Kid Cuddy, because if Combs retaliated against Cuddy for simply dating Cassie, if he really orchestrated the torching of a luxury vehicle to send a warning, then that becomes one of the predicate offenses needed to sustain the RICO count. And when you line up the timeline, Cassie's departure, the alleged break,

at Cuddy's home, the firebombing, the silence afterward. It fits into a larger strategy prosecutors say Combs relied on for years, a strategy of enforcement through fear, of loyalty, through control and isolation by design. And now prosecutors weren't just asking jurors to take Cassie Ventura's word for it. They had brought in someone with no ties to bad boy, no lawsuits pending, no history of going public. Just a man who showed up, told his story, told his story, and left. A story that prosecutors hope would turn a personal betrayal into legal proof of something far more coordinated, far more systemic, and far more criminal. If Kid Cuddy's testimony offered jurors a view from the outside, someone targeted for being close to Cassie, then Capricorn Clark brought them

inside, not into Diddy's studio or his VIP booth, but into his machinery. The way he operated the way he controlled. Capricorn Clark opened up the door for a lot of these predicate crimes to play out. But the main one that we've heard of in regards to Kit Cutty is the arson. But she also talked about unfair labor practices. She also talked about kidnapping. She also talked about guns. So she was someone who on her own did a lot of damage.

And a lot of us who were sitting in the courtroom, we didn't realize that she would go there. Clark met Combs in 2004. She was hired as his assistant, and over the years, became more than that. What's really, really, really powerful about her testimony is the fact that she was his shadow. Her job was to shadow him, shadow his life. So that's his personal side and his private side, from the moment he gets up till the moment he goes to bed. She described years of sleep deprivation, unfair labor, being on call 24-7. On a good night, she got four hours of rest.

On a bad one, maybe two. But the hardest parts weren't physical. They were moral. It is not just isolated to his private life with his lovers. It crosses over, employees, lovers, anybody in his path. It just shows you just his tremendous amount of power that everybody was willing to bend to his will or look the other way, turn the other cheek. Clark testified that she arranged hotel.

cell rooms for so-called freak-offs, secured burner phones for Cassie. Witness Combs violently kicked her until she curled into the fetal position. She described being locked in a Manhattan office for lie detector tests and subjected to intimidation under Combs' gaze. But one incident stood apart. When Mr. Combs finds out about the relationship between Ms. Ventura and Kit Cuddy, Diddy comes over to Capricorn Clark's home, essentially banging out the door saying, why the F didn't you tell me about this and said, we're going to go kill this expletive. It was the morning of December 22, 2011. She said he came to her door between 5.30 and 6 in the morning,

banging on the door with a gun in his hand. Capricorn Clark says, no, I don't want to go. I don't want to do this. And he's like, you're coming with me. I don't give an F what you want. Ultimately, alluding to and what the prosecution is trying to show in this line of questioning is that she was essentially kidnapped. by Mr. Combs, that he had a gun in his possession, that he forced her to come with him to

this home, that she didn't want to, that it was done against her will. She told the court that Combs forced her into a vehicle. They get into a black escalade. He's got a driver, so here we go, another team member supporting this foolishness. He sits in the back. She says he normally sits in the front. He sits in the back next to her with a gun on his left. Is that not frightening? That's removal of a person from one place to another. by use of threat of force or violence. That gun, that attitude, the circumstances, 5.30 in the morning,

the security guard didn't even check in and let you know he's coming up. That's intimidation. That's threat of force or violence. Clark had known about Cassie's secret relationship with Kid Cuddy. She helped her get a burner phone. She tried to protect her. Now, Combs was forcing her to be part of a retaliatory mission. She's like the narrator.

She's telling us everything that's happening. And she's telling us the who, what, when, where, and the why. She told us why we were there that night. She told us the drama that was going on behind the scenes. We can officially tie this knot to the other knot, to the other knot, to the other knot, and put this web together. Prosecutors argued that what happened that morning, Combs threats, the gun, the forced car ride amounted to kidnapping. And Clark wasn't just another employee.

she was someone who had visibility into the entire orbit. She also testified to setting up the freakoffs and certain things for the hotel rooms and things of that nature, which essentially would make her a part of the enterprise, as the government would try to argue. So I expect that she's testifying in part so that she herself isn't charged or is in some sort of cooperation agreement or something of the sort with the government, because essentially she could be on the hook if they chose to prosecute her as well under the RICO statue. But her loyalty hadn't been blind. It had been necessary. That's a theme we've seen with all of these witnesses. Their career is on the line. And some people's stakes are higher than others. You know, with Capricorn Clark, for example, she testified to the fact that she didn't have any parents.

You know, she's kind of out here thugging it in this world alone, surviving. So she didn't have, without working for Diddy, her health care, you know, her dental, her 401K, all of her benefits. She had to stay there. You know, one of the themes that emerged is the psychology or the circumstances of the person that he chose to hire, what they need, what they can't live without, what they can't do without money, support. Rent has to be paid. Mortgages have to be paid. Kids have to go to school. Everybody has a little bit of moral failings and moral sacrifices when they're looking out for their next meal, gas in their car, or their family. But that doesn't negate a fact. It's why.

Even years later, even testifying about threats, violence, and coercion, Clark still admitted to feeling something else. She wanted to protect him. Capricorn Clark was not intimately involved with him. And I think that really bolsters her testimony as well. And emotions are very clouded when you have that sexual entanglement by force or voluntarily. And I think that's what makes Capricorn Clark's testimony so. powerful is that she did not have that sexual relationship with him at no time. But it was

interesting that she did say, you know, she wanted to protect him. She felt like he was a protector. Again, like we talked earlier with how he meshes personal and private life. And he kind of cultivates this amazing kinglike aura, but also this very childlike persona where he needs to be protected. It's so interesting and psychologically diabolical. And it only grew more sinister. Clark recalled another incident when she was accused of stealing expensive jewelry that had been loaned to Combs. To test her loyalty, she was allegedly taken to a warehouse and subjected to lie detector tests for days on end against her will. Then came the cryptic warning. If she failed or if the results were unclear, she'd be left in the East River. He wasn't there,

but as Patterson argues, was she ever really hidden from Combs? Capricorn Clark was Diddy's shadow. So do we always know where our shadow is? Yes, it's right next to us. So when she was taken to this abandoned warehouse, tied up, giving these lie detector tests, told she couldn't leave, do you think he was wondering where his shadow was? No, he knew where his shadow was. On cross, the defense tried to chip away at her story.

He's got a huge, intelligent, experienced team. So I think if they could have poked holes, they would have. They did what they could, which was not poke any holes in her testimony and address these little miscellaneous things. Why didn't you do this? Why didn't you do that? Well, hey, it was 5.30 in the morning. I was scared out of my mind.

He had a gun. And I know how powerful this man is. Who's going to stop him? Clark didn't have to tie the story together. She was the threat itself, moving between private violence and professional complicity. She gave the jury a tour inside Combs' apparent equal. ecosystem. She took Cassie Ventura to get the burner phone and one of the things that she testified to and she was a little upset with Miss Ventura was that Sean Combs pays for both of their phones. So let's go get a burner phone because he had the ability to monitor or surveil whatever was on their phone. Another thing is, you know, having weapons around. How are those weapons used? Are they used simply for protection or are they used to intimidate an individual to get somebody to come to a location with you? and things like that.

So that also goes to threats of force or physical violence, which are also going to be highly relevant on this case. In her own words, she had no fallback plan. Diddy gave her a job, a purpose, a place in his world. But that world, she finally told a jury, was built on control. And she, his shadow, had seen it all. Capricorn Clark mapped the structure of control. Next, Deonte Nash showed what it looked like up close. He definitely had this loyalty

to Cassie Ventura. Deonti Nash was Cassie Ventura's longtime stylist, a close friend and someone who'd spent years inside Combs' inner circle. Kelly remembers how he appeared on the stand. What's interesting about Deontay Nash is his disposition, his sassiness, as I'm sure he would say, his frank answers, his ability to make the jury laugh. That kind of took things in a different way. He got everybody very comfortable in the courtroom that, you know what, I'm going to be exactly who I am. I may make you laugh.

I may talk about how fabulous I look in a picture. He did all of that. He didn't carry himself like a victim. He didn't sound like a lawyer's puppet. And that may have made him even more effective. I think that his corroboration of the story where Sean Combs comes in, attacks Cassie Ventura. There was blood, and Sean Combs got very nervous.

And that was the first time that we heard someone really stick up for Cassie. And according to him, jumped on Sean Combs' back. And then Sean pushed him off. And so there was a tussle, everything in a state of disarray. So we just have another scene. It's really a pile on when you look at all of these witnesses as to how much. much, according to them, Sean Combs beat Cassie. The defense tried to cast doubt, but Nash's presence gave the jury more than just detail.

It gave them tone, personality, urgency, and it underscored a dynamic that witnesses kept repeating. Abuse wasn't an isolated act. It was part of the atmosphere. What we get is this picture of Sean Combs, again, according to witnesses, in any context. It could be at a dinner table. It could be in a car full of people that he always punched or hit or kicked Cassie. And so with Deonté Nash, we get that same story that this is what happened. But unlike many of the people that we've heard about who stood aside,

he's the one who says, you know what? I'm going to jump on Sean Coles. Nash didn't just testify to what happened. He testified to what it felt like, the environment Cassie lived in, the fear, the coercion. the cycle. He was an important witness to say this isn't just behind closed doors. This is out in the open that Sean Combs didn't care because Sean Combs was going to coerce and be this albatross on the neck of Cassie at all times, even when she wasn't in his presence. This was the prosecution strategy. Use different witnesses to build out a single story,

not just about violence, but about isolation, emotional captivity, control maintained through fear, through sabotage, through public threats, and private surveillance. And Nash, Cassie's longtime stylist, her friend, her witness, helped make it all visible. So how did it all land? The drama, the blood, the sassy asides, the loyalty, the leap onto Combs' back? We asked legal analyst Candace Kelly. You may have some jurors say, well, was he really telling the truth? her friend, possibly, but it's not just him speaking on behalf of his friend. So I think that

that's what really makes a difference. The other thing, again, what was at stake for him? Was he trying to gain anything? He doesn't have a lawsuit against Combs. He didn't get money from Combs, except for the payment for him being a stylist. Credibility wasn't just about Nash himself. It was about establishing that pattern, about backup. And in that respect, the prosecution knew exactly what it was doing. That's what we get by these types of witnesses, the pile on, this general kind of feeling in the atmosphere that at all times she felt like she had to do exactly what he said. Whether you fought him or not, he was always going to come back.

And that's what I got from Deonté Nash. That's the impression Nash left behind, not just of a single act of violence, but of a man who always came back and a system where resistance wasn't a solution. It was just a delay. The scene Nash described was violent and chaotic, and the prosecution didn't need him to stand alone. His account synced with others, and that, they argued, is what mattered most. You have to bring Mia in now, because she also corroborated the exact same story that Deontay and Cassie told. Up next, a pseudonymous witness who doesn't fit clearly on either side of the story.

On the one hand, she talks about. about being attacked by Sean at a birthday party. And on the other hand, she has these loving messages to him personally on his phone, loving messages that she's posted online. He's the best. Even after she'd no longer work for him, she was writing him.

She was posting about him. So she was really a mixed bag. For the prosecution, Mia's testimony could help reinforce a pattern of psychological coercion. For the defense, it could be the wedge to pry it apart. She mentioned the word cult and felt like she was mesmerized, so entrenched in who he was. She really saw him as a god, even on the stand. She said, yeah, I love that guy.

What do you do with a witness who says the abuse was real, and so was the affection? In the next episode, we unpack Mia's testimony, the contradictions, the cross-examination, and what her story reveals about control, complicity, and the psychology of staying. This has been a long crime production. I'm your host, Jesse Weber. Our executive producer is Jessica Lowther. Our writer and producer is Cooper Mall. Our associate producer is Test Jagger Wells. Edit and sound design by Anna McLean. Guest booking by Diane Kay and Alyssa Fisher. Additional production support from Giuliana Bataglia and Stephanie Doucette. legal review by Elizabeth Vuli,

key art designed by Sean Panzera, and special thanks to Elizabeth Milner for her in-depth reporting on this case. Follow Long Crimes, The Rise and Fall of Diddy, the Federal Trial, on the Wondery app. You can listen to more episodes exclusively and ad-free right now on Wondery Plus.

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