Sean Combs sex trafficking trial updates: Cassie's testimony ends after days of describing abuse

On cross-examination, defense attorney Brian Steel suggested that hotel security guard Israel Florez may have been embellishing his account when he testified that Combs had a "devilish" look on his face when he first encountered him in the hotel hallway.

"Where in your report do you describe Mr. Combs having "devilish stare?" Steel asked.

"It was my opinion but not part of the incident so not in the report," Florez responded.

Steel also sought to point out that Florez did not need to call for assistance because Combs was cooperative.

"When you first come, he's sitting in a chair?" Steel asked.

"Yes," Florez replied.

"You don't see him make any restive movements toward the young lady?" asked Steel.

"No," replied Florez.

On redirect, prosecutors replayed a portion of the video showing Combs attacking Ventura and sought to show that Florez's incident report did not necessarily include everything that occurred on that day in March 2016.

"Were you expected to include every single detail?" prosecutor Christy Slavik asked.

"No, ma'am," Florez responded.

Florez is off the stand following his testimony. The second prosecution witness is Daniel Phillip, a male escort who has said he was paid to have sex with Cassie Ventura at the Gramercy Park Hotel.

The prosecution has played for the jury the March 2016 video of Combs attacking Cassie Ventura.

Ventura is seen on hotel surveillance footage standing at the elevator on the sixth floor of the InterContinental Hotel in Century City, CA wearing blue pants and black hoodie. There are two bags at her feet: one smaller, one larger.

Ventura is seen on the video retrieving socks from the larger bag. She starts to put them on her bare feet when the video shows Sean Combs emerging from around the corner, grabbing her from behind and throwing her to the floor. He then stomps on her and drags her toward their room, the video shows.

Ventura gets up and retrieves items from the floor. Combs is then seen approaching her again, taking a cell phone, sitting on a chair and throwing a vase at her. The jury saw photos of the broken vase glass on the hallway carpet.

Combs appeared to watch the video dispassionately, with his arms folded on the defense table. His mother and children, seated behind him in the spectators' gallery, displayed no reaction.

In a second video, hotel security guard Israel Florez, who testified earlier, is seen escorting Combs toward his room. There is no audio on the surveillance footage but the two men are seen conversing. "I'm trying to deescalate," Florez testified earlier regarding the conversation.

Florez recorded the third and fourth videos the jury saw using his cell phone. In one of them, Florez is seen talking to Combs and Ventura. There is no sound but he testified that he urged them to return to their room and told them the damage to the hallway would appear on their hotel bill.

Mike Marza talks with Michael F. Bachner about the defense's strategy with the jury seeing the 2016 video of the Cassie Ventura attack.

The evidentiary phase of Sean Combs' trial began Monday by transporting jurors to March 2016, when Combs was caught on hotel surveillance footage attacking his then-girlfriend, Cassie Ventura

The first witness is Israel Florez, an LAPD officer who was working security at the InterContinental Hotel in Century City, CA when he said he responded to a call for "a woman in distress" on the sixth floor.

"After I responded, when I got out of the elevator, I observed a male and female in the elevator lobby," Florez said, adding that he recognized the male as Sean Combs.

"I seen Mr. Combs in a towel and some colored socks." Florez said Combs gave him a "devilish stare" and Ventura looked "scared."

"She was pretty much just covered up. I couldn't see her face. She was pretty much in the corner," Florez said. He noticed the flower vase that decorates the hallway was destroyed.

"She was saying that she wanted to get her phone, her bag, she wanted to leave," Florez recalled. At one point, he said, Combs told her "you're not going to leave."

Florez followed the pair back to their room and stood in the doorway. He said he noticed a "male, black wearing dark clothing sitting at the corner of the bed."

Once Ventura left the room, Florez said Combs called to him. "He was pretty much holding a sack of money and he said, 'here take care of this for me, don't tell anyone.'"

He later noticed Ventura had a "purple eye."

Federal prosecutors said Combs is seen on video "brutally beating" Ventura as she tried to escape a "freak off." Defense attorneys conceded what the video depicted "is dehumanizing and violent and terrible" but downplayed it as a fight over a phone.

The defense called Combs a "flawed individual," prone to jealous rages, who even committed domestic assault but said he's no sex trafficker and his unconventional sexual preferences were not part of any RICO conspiracy, as alleged.

Federal prosecutors argued the case is not about a celebrity's private sex life. Instead, they said "the sexual conduct at issue in this case was coercive and criminal."

Cassie Ventura and "Jane" are both "capable, strong" women who chose to remain with Sean Combs, the defense insisted during opening statements.

Ventura was "not coerced to engage in this sex life," and "Jane" was "desperate" to be with Combs, defense attorney Teny Geragos said.

According to Geragos, Ventura attended the funeral of Kim Porter in 2018 when she heard Combs call Porter his soulmate. The defense attorney said it became clear to Cassie then that she was never going to be the love of Combs' life and so she left him with no repercussions.

When Ventura testifies it will be the first time that she and Combs have seen each other since that day in 2018, according to Geragos.

"What he understood was that she was a willing participant in their sex life," Geragos said, and suggested Ventura is now motivated by money.

Geragos said "Jane" and Combs had a "toxic, dysfunctional" relationship but the defense attorney insisted that she, too, was a willing participant in sexual activity.

"Being a willing participant in your own sex life is not sex trafficking," Geragos said.

Geragos said jurors may find videos of the sexual activities difficult to watch "because they were never meant to be seen" and are "intimate."

Federal prosecutors said the videos are evidence of the alleged blackmail that Combs used against women who did not obey him.