Sean 'Diddy' Combs trial updates: Cassie Ventura breaks down as testimony concludes

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.

The evidentiary phase of Sean Combs’ trial began Monday with testimony regarding when Combs was caught on hotel surveillance footage attacking his then-girlfriend, Cassie Ventura.

The first witness to take the stand was Israel Florez, an LAPD officer who was working security at the InterContinental Hotel in Century City, CA in March 2016, when he said he responded to a call about “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, adding that Combs gave him what Florez described as a "devilish stare,” and noted that 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 also said he noticed that 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 testified. At one point, he said, Combs allegedly told Ventura, “you’re not going to leave.”

Florez testified that he 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,’” Florez testified.

Florez said he later noticed that Ventura had a “purple eye.”

Federal prosecutors have said that Combs is seen on video “brutally beating” Ventura as she tried to escape a so-called “freak off” sex party. Defense attorneys conceded what the video depicted “is dehumanizing and violent and terrible” but said it was a fight over a phone.

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

The jury hearing the case against Sean Combs is comprised of eight men and four women from varying backgrounds.

Among the men on the jury is a 69-year-old massage therapist, a 68-year-old retired former bank employee, a 41-year-old clerk for a correctional facility, and a 51-year-old scientist. Rounding out the list of men on the jury is a 31-year-old investment analyst, a 68-year-old retired former telephone company lineman, a 39-year-old social worker, and a 67-year-old logistics analyst for a bank.

The women on the jury include a 30-year old deli clerk, a 42-year-old nursing home employee, a 43-year-old physician's assistant, and a 74-year-old treatment coordinator for a nonprofit.

The jurors are from New York City area -- five from Manhattan, three from the Bronx and four from Westchester County.

There are six alternate jurors, including four men: a 57-year-old architect, a 35-year-old unemployed man, a 40-year-old physician scientist and a 37-year old administrative officer with an international government organization. The two female alternates are a 71-year-old dance foundation worker and a 24-year-old site operator for a coffee service company.