Jury in Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Trial Reaches Verdict on All Counts but Racketeering Conspiracy

A jury in Manhattan reached a partial verdict on Tuesday in the federal case against the music mogul Sean Combs, but it did not announce its decision because it was deadlocked on a final charge of racketeering conspiracy. The jury left for the night and will return to continue deliberating on Wednesday morning.

The jury, comprising eight men and four women, said there were members “with unpersuadable opinions on both sides” on the racketeering count. After deliberating for more than 12 hours, they reached a verdict on the four other counts in the case, two each of sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution.

Mr. Combs has pleaded not guilty to all charges, and his lawyers have denied that any of his sexual activities with the women in the trial were nonconsensual.

After the jurors alerted the court to the partial verdict at about 4:05 p.m. on Tuesday, Judge Arun Subramanian, who is presiding over the case, brought them into the courtroom and encouraged them to continue their discussions.

“I ask at this time that you keep deliberating,” Judge Subramanian said.

He reread the panel an excerpt from the jury instructions that said “no juror should surrender his or her conscientious beliefs for the purpose of returning a unanimous verdict.”

At that point, the jury decided to conclude its deliberations for the day and return on Wednesday at 9 a.m.

When the jury first sent its note about its partial verdict, there was no sign in the courtroom of the seriousness of the message; previous notes from the jury over the previous day and a half had concerned legal details.

But within minutes, Mr. Combs slumped in his chair. Eight of his lawyers huddled around him, all of them looking grim. Mr. Combs appeared somber, his head bowed and his hands folded in his lap. His lawyers passed the jury’s note around, closely scrutinizing it.

The racketeering conspiracy charge accuses Mr. Combs — the famed music producer also known as Puff Daddy and Diddy — of running a criminal enterprise with his employees that was responsible for misdeeds over two decades.

Once the note was delivered, lawyers for both sides told Judge Subramanian they were in favor of continuing deliberations.

Maurene Comey, the lead prosecutor, suggested employing an “Allen charge,” a set of instructions given to a hung jury urging it to come to a verdict. Marc Agnifilo, the lead defense lawyer, asked the judge not to press jurors toward a verdict, considering they had been deliberating only “for a day and change.”

“I don’t think we need to do anything to move them along — they’re moving along fine,” Mr. Agnifilo said.

The judge took the more conservative approach, reading back parts of legal instructions that he had already delivered.

Mr. Combs, 55, was arrested in September on the charges, and has remained in detention since then. He faces a sentence that could extend to life in prison if convicted of the most serious charges.

To convict Mr. Combs on the racketeering charge, jurors must find that he knowingly joined an unlawful conspiracy, and that Mr. Combs agreed that he or a co-conspirator would commit at least two criminal acts to further the enterprise. Prosecutors have said that he and a loyal inner circle of Mr. Combs’s employees carried out various crimes over more than a decade, including drug distribution, kidnapping, arson, bribery, sex trafficking, interstate transportation for prostitution and forced labor.

Under the sex-trafficking charges, prosecutors have argued that Mr. Combs used violence, financial control and threats to manipulate his girlfriends into physically taxing sex sessions with hired men, called “freak-offs” or “hotel nights.”

The two women at the center of the case — Casandra Ventura and a woman known by the pseudonym “Jane” — testified for a combined 10 days. The defense asserted throughout the trial that the women were willing participants in the sex marathons.

After the jury left for the day on Tuesday, Mr. Combs turned to face members of his family who were seated near the front of the public gallery. He blew them a kiss and put a hand on his heart.

His mother rose and whispered something to him. “I’ll be all right,” he said to her. “Love you.”

Olivia Bensimon and Anusha Bayya contributed reporting.

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