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MANHATTAN (CN) — A federal law enforcement search of Sean “Diddy” Combs’ famed Miami Beach mansion uncovered two disassembled automatic rifles stashed among platform heels and lingerie, the special agent in charge of the March 2024 search testified Tuesday afternoon.
Combs, 55, is standing trial in Manhattan federal court on a five-count federal indictment charging him with racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution. If he is convicted on all counts, he could face life in prison.
Special Agent Gerard Gannon, based in Miami, testified Tuesday that he was the special agent in charge on the ground for the search of Combs’ mansion on Star Island, near Miami Beach, on March 25, 2024.
Prosecutors showed jurors photographs taken by the investigators around the outside of the property and inside the rooms.
One photograph entered into evidence showed sex toys and lubricant neatly organized in a closet of the master bedroom, while another photograph showed a generic brown cardboard box containing the disassembled “lower receiver” parts of two AR-15 rifles, surrounded by large, branded boxes containing platform high heels.
Gannon testified that two complementary AR-15 “upper receiver” gun barrels were found separately wrapped inside a white towel.
He said investigators also found two loaded rifle magazines in the bedroom closet; a 30-round magazine found in the mansion contained 19 bullets, while a 10-round magazine was fully loaded.
One barrel was equipped with a “red dot optics” sight, he said, while the other was mounted with an iron sight.
Prosecutors handed him the two ammunition magazines in a plastic evidence bag to examine on the witness stand on Tuesday.
Gannon said approximately 80 to 90 law enforcement agents, including members of a special response team, participated in the search because of the size of the 20,000 square foot gated property.
Shortly after his arrest in September 2024, Combs requested his pretrial release on bail on a proposed $50 million package secured by the $48 million Star Island mansion.
Earlier on Tuesday, Cassie’s mother, Regina Ventura, testified that she and her husband used $20,000 from a home equity loan to pay off an extortion demand from Combs to prevent him from releasing graphic sexual videos of Cassie from “freak offs” after he found out she was dating the rapper Kid Cudi.
During Regina Ventura’s testimony, prosecutors showed jurors an e-mail from Cassie to her mother in December 2011, frantic about the looming release of the embarrassing videos.
“The threats that have been made towards me by Sean ‘Puffy’ Combs that he is going to release 2 explicit sex tapes of me. One on Christmas Day, maybe before or right after and another one some time soon after that,” Cassie wrote in the e-mail. “He has also said that he will be having someone hurt me and Scott Mescudi physically. He made a point that it wouldn’t be by his hands. He actually said he’d be out of the country when it happened,” the e-mail continued.
“I was physically sick. I did not understand a lot of it,” Regina Ventura testified. “The sex tapes threw me, but I knew that he was trying to hurt my daughter.”
She testified she paid the Combs the $20,000 “because he demanded it,” but the sum was returned several days later.
Cassie testified last week that Combs told her he wanted Kid Cudi’s friends to watch his car get blown up.
Prosecutors announced later on Tuesday that they intend to call Kid Cudi to testify this week, as early as Wednesday afternoon.
Prosecutors also called Sharay Hayes, an exotic dancer who performs professionally as “The Punisher,” on Tuesday to testify about being paid to perform baby oil-drenched “freak offs” with Cassie Ventura while Combs watched.
Echoing similar testimony by another male escort on the trial’s opening day, Hayes said he was always paid “either $1,200 or $2,000” in cash for each hotel tryst, which he said typically consisted of around 45 minutes of actual sexual activity during each approximately four-hour, late-night appointment.
He testified he was hired to “create a sexy scene” with Cassie while Combs watched from a distance and gave subtle directions on “angles, lighting, positions and sometimes the sexual activity.”
Hayes said he experienced performance issues maintaining an erection, which led to him no longer being called back for the so-called “freak offs” after March 2015.
“A sexual scenario with a woman’s partner present, actively giving directions and stuff, was not the norm for me,” he testified, adding he tried remedies including “Cialis, Viagra, the corner store pill.”
Earlier on Tuesday, one of Combs’ personal assistants, David James, recalled the details of working for the Bad Boy and Sean John mogul in the late 2000s.
James, now a real estate agent, testified that Combs always carried a toiletries bag with various pills, including ecstasy and Percocet. He said Combs had a penchant for ecstasy pills pressed into the shape of the face of then-current U.S. President Barack Obama.
James said a confrontation with former Death Row Records boss Suge Knight outside of a diner in Los Angeles in 2009 ultimately led to his resignation from working for Combs.
“It was the first time being Mr. Combs’ assistant where I realized my life was in danger,” he testified.
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