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Deonte Nash, who said he witnessed the mogul beating Casandra Ventura, is being cross-examined. Later, a former assistant is expected to say she was sexually assaulted.
May 29, 2025Updated 9:31 a.m. ET
A stylist who testified that he witnessed Sean Combs repeatedly beat Casandra Ventura, his longtime girlfriend, and was privy to her discomfort with the sexual encounters at the heart of the mogul’s sex-trafficking and racketeering case came under questioning on Thursday by the defense.
The stylist, Deonte Nash, is a critical witness for the prosecution because he said Ms. Ventura told him several times that she did not want to participate in the sexual encounters with male prostitutes, called “freak-offs,” that prosecutors say Mr. Combs demanded and directed.
Xavier Donaldson, a lawyer for Mr. Combs, began questioning Mr. Nash on Thursday morning about what he knew about infidelity in Mr. Combs and Ms. Ventura’s relationship — a main theme of the defense.
Later on Thursday, a former personal assistant of Sean Combs who prosecutors say was sexually assaulted by her boss, is expected to take the stand.
Throughout the trial, the woman has been referred to by the pseudonym “Mia.” Prosecutors have previewed her testimony for jurors by saying that she would “tell you about the times that the defendant forced himself on her sexually, putting his hand up her dress, unzipping his pants and forcing her to perform oral sex, and sneaking into her bed to penetrate her against her will.”
Previous witnesses have described Mia as part of Mr. Combs’s entourage and a friend of Casandra Ventura, the music mogul’s on-and-off girlfriend of 11 years whom he is charged with sex trafficking.
