A jury began deliberating on Monday over the fate of Sean Combs, the music mogul facing charges of sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy. Inside the jury room in Lower Manhattan, the 12 New Yorkers will have access to hundreds, if not thousands, of pages of evidence presented during the seven-week trial, including years worth of text messages that chronicle Mr. Combs’s relationships with the two women at the center of the case.
The prosecution has highlighted dozens of those text messages in an effort to prove that Mr. Combs used violence, financial control and threats to manipulate his girlfriends into physically taxing sex sessions with hired men, while he masturbated and filmed.
The mogul’s defense lawyers have maintained that these nights of sex — known as “freak-offs” and “hotel nights” — were fully consensual, and they spent hours throughout the trial parsing messages in which the women appeared to convey enthusiasm for the encounters.
The trove of texts that jurors have seen provided intimate glimpses into the dynamics of two tumultuous relationships, the first with Casandra Ventura, the singer known as Cassie, and the second with a woman who testified under the pseudonym “Jane.”
Both sides have had to contend with the complexities reflected in the years of communications: expressions of love and anger, lust and reluctance, excitement and anxiety.
The total collection of evidence in the case includes 28 days of witness testimony, videos of some of the drug-fueled sex sessions and the surveillance footage of Mr. Combs’s assault on Ms. Ventura in 2016. But the text messages play a crucial role in knitting together a narrative of events.
Here are excerpts from eight series of messages that the prosecution and defense have used in court to make their cases.
Texts between Sean Combs and Casandra Ventura
Aug. 5, 2009: The defense has referred to this exchange — sent via BlackBerry — during the trial in an effort to convince jurors that Ms. Ventura was a willing participant in freak-offs. At the time, Ms. Ventura testified, she and Mr. Combs had been dating for nearly two years and had begun a pattern of voyeurism in which he would direct her on how to have sex with male escorts or dancers.
July 29, 2012: During closing arguments, the defense reread this exchange to jurors because it said it directly preceded a freak-off that the government has highlighted as an episode of sex trafficking. The defense argued that “dirty talk” between the couple showed that both had committed to a “swingers” lifestyle involving escorts such as a regular known as “Jules.”
March 5, 2016: The prosecution pointed to this exchange, which occurred after Ms. Ventura was assaulted by Mr. Combs in the hallway of a Los Angeles hotel after a freak-off. She has testified that she continued the sex with escorts in part because she feared what Mr. Combs, who had physically abused her in the past, would do if she said no. The police never arrived at the hotel as Mr. Combs claimed. Prosecutors characterized that as part of his effort to manipulate her.
Jan. 7, 2017: Prosecutors suggested this series of texts from Ms. Ventura to Mr. Combs show the toll that marathon sexual “performances” and physical abuse had taken on her. She testified she had to hide out in hotel rooms to heal from injuries, and that planning and recovering from frequent freak-offs felt like it became her “job.” Gina and Kim were other love interests of Mr. Combs.
Texts between Sean Combs and ‘Jane’
June 19, 2022: The defense cited this exchange between Jane and Mr. Combs as evidence he was willing to take no for an answer when she balked at a freak-off. She had testified that while she was open to adventurous sex when she began dating Mr. Combs in 2021, it soon dominated their relationship to the point where she felt exploited. She described Mr. Combs as “dismissive” when she voiced her reluctance. The defense suggested that although the couple had not had a “hotel night” in more than two months at this point, Mr. Combs agreed easily when Jane expressed reluctance.
Aug. 4, 2023: The prosecution repeatedly highlighted this exchange as an example of Mr. Combs making a financial threat when Jane subtly resisted a “hotel night.” By this point, Mr. Combs had begun paying Jane’s $10,000-a-month rent and had bought her dental veneers because he “didn’t like” her teeth, Jane testified. The prosecution said the conversation took place after Jane tried to signal she would prefer to be with Mr. Combs, not escorts.
Sept. 17, 2023: Prosecutors used this exchange to show Jane’s increasing disinterest in “hotel nights” in the latter part of 2023. She reported feeling degraded but testified that Mr. Combs’s references to paying her rent made her feel obligated to continue them. Prosecutors told jurors that Jane sent this message of concern to him directly before a key episode in which they say he coerced her into a hotel night in New York.
Sept. 24, 2023: In its closing argument, the defense pointed to this exchange as evidence that, even shortly after an episode the government identified as a time when Jane was sex trafficked, she appeared to describe video footage of a hotel night as exciting. Mr. Combs joked that he would find the videos too distracting, and Jane seemed to agree they were “muy caliente.” The defense told jurors that just after this exchange, Jane reached out to an escort to invite him to see them again.
During the trial, the defense highlighted the emojis Jane sent with the messages: a train icon, following by smoke emojis, a “shocked face” and a “sweating face.”
Julia Jacobs is an arts and culture reporter who often covers legal issues for The Times.
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