June 4 (UPI) — The Sean “Diddy” Combs criminal trial continued Wednesday as prosecutors continue to attempt to fully demonstrate how Combs desperately worked to conceal the crimes of which he’s accused.
The first witness of the day was a forensic video expert named Frank Piazza, who testified there were “no anomalies” in a clip of video surveillance that allegedly captured Combs and his former girlfriend Casandra “Cassie” Ventura Fine involved in an altercation in 2016.
Eddy Garcia, a former security officer at InterContinental Hotel in Los Angeles, and where the incident occurred, testified Tuesday that Combs paid him $100,000 for a copy of the video, which appears to show Combs attacking Fine in a hotel hallway, dragging, hitting and kicking her violently. The security footage was first publicly broadcast by CNN last year.
Garcia said Combs gave him the money in a paper bag, and was concerned he could face legal problems for giving a copy to Combs, who told Garcia he “didn’t have to worry about it” because both Combs and Ventura Fine wanted the tape to disappear. Combs then had Garcia sign a non-disclosure agreement and another document that stated the copy of the video he provided was the only copy. Garcia then divided the money between himself, his boss and another security guard.
Another person named Enrique Santos is slated to testify on Wednesday. Santos has been widely misidentified as another Enrique Santos, who hosts a radio show for WZTU-FM in Miami. The radio personality posted to Instagram Tuesday that while CNN corrected this, it’s still being published elsewhere.
Combs was arrested in September 2024 and jailed on charges related to racketeering, sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution, to which he has pleaded not guilty.
