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Sean Combs repeatedly called a hotel security guard “my angel” and offered the man his favorite tea during a high-stakes negotiation to purchase the now notorious video of Combs kicking and dragging his ex-girlfriend Casandra “Cassie” Ventura in a hotel hallway in March 2016, the security guard testified Monday.
Combs would go on to hand the man a brown paper bag stuffed with $100,000 cash to buy and bury the highly incriminating video, the guard told jurors.
Eddy Garcia took the witness stand and said he initially rebuffed the first phone calls and in-person lobby visit from Combs’ chief of staff, Kristina Khorram, in which she sought to view and obtain the video recorded at the now-shuttered InterContinental Hotel in Los Angeles. Garcia said he told Khorram she needed to contact the hotel’s general manager or get a subpoena. But Khorram eventually called him on his personal phone, making him “nervous,” he testified. He was unsure how she obtained the private line, he said. Khorram then handed the phone to Combs, who started playing on Garcia’s sympathies, he said.
Combs repeatedly said Garcia “sounded like a good guy” and told him that if the video got out, it would “ruin his career,” Garcia testified. Combs then floated the idea of coming to some kind of arrangement, he recalled. Garcia said he checked with his supervisor about brokering a deal, and the supervisor allegedly agreed to sell the video for $50,000.
“Eddy, my angel, I knew you could help. I knew you could do it,” Combs gushed when he learned they could make a deal, Garcia told jurors.
Garcia recalled being directed by Khorram to a high-rise office building with the video on a USB flash drive. When he arrived, a beefy bodyguard escorted him up an elevator to an office where he met Combs, he said. “I was very nervous, so my voice kept cracking,” he recalled. Combs noticed his distress and oasked Khorram to “go get him that tea I like,” Garcia said. Combs then got down to business, asking for confirmation that the video on the thumb drive was the last remaining copy, Garcia testified. “He said it had to be the only copy and that he didn’t want it getting out,” Garcia recalled. Combs wanted reassurance that “nothing was on the cloud,” he said.
When Garcia mentioned that he was concerned he might get in trouble if Ventura reported the incident, Combs allegedly placed a video call to Ventura, who was bundled up in a hoodie.
“Let him know you want this to go away too,” Combs instructed Ventura during the call, Garcia said. Ventura purportedly said she had a movie coming out and wanted the incident to “go away” as well. He said her demeanor was calm at the time. (In her own testimony, Ventura shared photos of the busted lip and bruised face that she snapped after fleeing the caught-on-camera beating at the InterContinental.)
Garcia testified that once he heard from Ventura, he signed a declaration that the video on the thumb drive was the only copy. He also signed a non-disclosure agreement dated March 7, 2011, two days after the hotel assault. The documents were printed on letterhead from Combs’ company, Combs Enterprises, according to images shown in court. The agreement said Garcia would be on the hook for $1 million if he violated the confidentiality clause. Garcia said he skimmed the paperwork and did not receive his own copies of the agreements.
“I was nervous, I was in a rush to get out of there,” he testified. Garcia said after he signed, Combs presented him with the $100,000 in the paper bag. Combs ran the cash through a money counter in front of him, separating the bills into stacks of $10,000, Garcia recalled. The former security guard said Khorram was walking in and out of the room during the meeting and that Combs personally walked him out of the building, warning him not to make any big purchases that might raise suspicions.
Garcia said he gave the first $50,000 to his boss and another $20,000 to the fellow security officer who agreed to turn over his ID card to Combs. Garcia said he kept $30,000 for himself, using it buy a used car. He said Combs called him on his personal phone a couple weeks later, wishing him a “Happy Easter” and again calling him “Eddy my angel.” He said Combs wanted to make sure no one had followed up with him, asking questions.
“Eddy, my angel, God is good. God put you in my life for a reason,” Combs purportedly told him. Garcia said Combs ended the call saying that if Garcia “needed anything, just to let him know.”
After Garcia was excused, jurors heard that the security guards’ ID photos and the non-disclosure agreement shown during Garcia’s testimony were extracted from devices belonging to Khorram. Jurors heard that the electronics were seized when Combs and his entourage were detained at an airport the day that federal investigators raided Combs’ homes in Miami and Los Angeles in March 2024. One of Garcia’s numbers was saved in the phone under the contact “Eddy My Love.”
Combs, 55, was arrested in September and has pleaded not guilty to charges ofsex trafficking, transportation to engage in prostitution and racketeering conspiracy. If convicted as charged, he could spend the rest of his life in prison. Combs has remained upbeat throughout the trial, giving a daily wave to members of the public and the press as he enters the courtroom. During short breaks, he turns around to whisper to his family members and loved ones who filter in and out throughout the week. On Tuesday, Dana Tran, the mother of Combs’ youngest daughter Love, appeared for the first time since the trial’s first week, jotting down notes from witnesses’ testimony in a journal.
During her opening statement delivered on the first day of Combs’ sex trafficking and racketeering trial in New York, Assistant U.S. Attorney Emily Johnson said Combs used his inner circle to help facilitate the $100,000 bribe and “keep his reputation and his power intact.” She said the alleged instance of bribery and obstruction of justice supported the racketeering conspiracy charge in Combs’ indictment.
In filings and oral arguments over the last eight months, prosecutors have claimed Combs ran a criminal enterprise that manipulated women into drug-fueled, highly orchestrated sex marathons with male escorts that Combs watched and recorded. The encounters were known as “freak-offs,” “hotel nights,” and “wild king nights,” they said. Beyond bribery and obstruction of justice, prosecutors claim Combs and his inner circle also engaged in forced labor, kidnapping, and arson.
Combs’ defense lawyer, Teny Geragos, said in her opening statement that the $100,000 payment wasn’t paid to obstruct justice, as prosecutors claim. “This was solely related to preventing bad publicity for both Combs and Cassie, and had nothing to do with obstructing a law enforcement investigation,” Geragos said.
She and other members of the defense team have maintained that Combs was a “swinger” who indulged his “kinky” preferences with other consenting adults. They’ve acknowledged Ventura was the victim of an episode of domestic violence at the InterContinental, but they deny Combs was a sex trafficker.
Cassie testified during the first week of trial that she and Combs were at the InterContinental in March 2016 for a freak-off with a male escort. She said her movie premiere was just days away at that point, so she was engaging in “damage control” when she agreed to meet Combs for the voyeuristic sex performance. “If I pleased him with a freak-off, then my premiere would run smoothly,” Ventura testified May 13.
Ventura told jurors that Combs punched her in the face during the freak-off and then when he caught her trying to escape, threw her to the ground and kicked her near the bank of elevators. She didn’t fight back because she already had a black eye and “didn’t want him to do any more damage than he had already done,” she said.
According to prosecutors, Combs committed sex trafficking when he allegedly used violence, threats, and manipulation to coerce Ventura, and later another woman, into freak-offs with male escorts. The video from the InterContinental Hotel is considered critical to the government’s case because it not only captured violence, it also allegedly showed what happened when Ventura purportedly tried to flee a “freak off.”
Derek Ferguson, Combs’ former head of finance for Bad Boy Entertainment, testified after Garcia on Tuesday. He was asked to confirm December 2011 bank statements that showed more than $3 million flowing in and out of one of Combs’ bank accounts linked to the LLC of his New Jersey home. Nestled amid personal wire transfers to himself for amounts between $50,000 and$200,000 —as well as a $500k purchase from Barbara Gladstone Gallery —was a record that showed Combs transferred $20,000 to Ventura on Dec. 14 that year. He also confirmed that Ventura’s parents sent Combs a wire transfer on Dec. 23, 2011, for $20,000.
Ferguson’s testimony was technical and dry, but it corroborated the account that Ventura’s mom gave to jurors when she testified two weeks ago. Regina Ventura said Combs “demanded” she send him $20,000 via wire transfer because he was “angry” at her daughter for dating Scott Mescudi, the musician known as Kid Cudi. Regina said Combs claimed the money was to recoup business expenses spent on Ventura’s career. In his own prior testimony, Mescudi said Combs broke into his house shortly before the 2011 Christmas holiday to confront him over the romance.
Regina Ventura testified that she took Combs’ demand seriously because she was “scared for my daughter’s safety.” She said the money was returned to her account a few days later with no explanation. (Ventura previously told jurors that Combs turned violent, kicked her in the back and threatened to release explicit videos of her in retaliation for her relationship with Mescudi.)
Ferguson said that he sporadically kept in touch with Combs, sending him birthday messages and happy holidays, but he unexpectedly received a text message from Combs on September 16. Combs said he was in New York City and wanted to meet up, seeking “advice,” Ferguson said. Later that day, Combs was arrested.
Under cross examination by Combs’ lawyer Marc Agnifilo, Ferguson said he never saw Combs break the law while working for him between 1998 and 2017. Asked if he thought “highly” of Combs, Ferguson took a long pause and said he didn’t know how to respond to the question. Agnifilo quickly moved on to his next question.
Earlier on Tuesday, a member of the public was ejected from the courtroom before jurors were brought in. The woman had tried to communicate with Combs, yelling out, “Diddy, these motherfuckers are laughing at you!” She began to yell and curse at court officers, resisting as they physically removed her from the room.
Prosecutors also noted that another person had been barred from the courtroom. Addressing U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian, they said someone inside the courtroom on Monday had gone on their YouTube channel and disclosed the real identity of Combs’ former personal assistant “Mia.” The court previously sealed Mia’s true name and allowed her to testify under the pseudonym.
