The judge has told them to keep deliberating on a racketeering conspiracy charge after the jury said there were “unpersuadable opinions on both sides.”
A jury in Manhattan reached a partial verdict on Tuesday in the federal case against the music mogul Sean Combs after deliberating for more than 12 hours, saying that it was deadlocked on a charge of racketeering conspiracy.
At about 4:05 p.m., the jury sent a note to the judge saying it had reached a verdict on four of the five counts against Mr. Combs — two counts each of sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution — but was unable to come to a decision on the racketeering charge. The note from the panel said there were jurors “with unpersuadable opinions on both sides.”
The racketeering conspiracy charge accuses Mr. Combs — the famed music producer also known as Puff Daddy and Diddy — of running a criminal enterprise with his employees that was responsible for misdeeds over two decades.
Before the judge announced the partial verdict publicly, eight of Mr. Combs’s lawyers were huddled around him for several minutes, all of them looking grim. Mr. Combs appeared somber, his head bowed and his hands folded in his lap. His lawyers passed the note around, closely scrutinizing it.
Once the jury’s note was delivered, lawyers for both sides made recommendations to Judge Arun Subramanian about how to proceed. The judge is currently deciding how to instruct the jury further. Both sides were in favor of continuing deliberations.
Mr. Combs, 55, was arrested in September and charged with sex trafficking, racketeering conspiracy and transportation to engage in prostitution. He faces a sentence that could extend to life in prison if convicted of the most serious charges. He pleaded not guilty, and his lawyers have denied that any of his sexual arrangements with the women in the trial were nonconsensual.
To convict Mr. Combs on the racketeering charge, jurors need to find that he knowingly joined an unlawful conspiracy, and that Mr. Combs agreed that he or a co-conspirator would commit at least two criminal acts to further the enterprise. Prosecutors have said that a loyal inner circle of Mr. Combs’s employees carried out various crimes over more than a decade, including drug distribution, kidnapping, arson, bribery, sex trafficking, interstate transportation for prostitution and forced labor.
Maurene Comey, the lead prosecutor, suggested an “Allen charge,” special instructions given to a hung jury urging it to come to a verdict. Marc Agnifilo, the lead defense layer, said the defense did not want a partial verdict, and asked the judge to ask the jury to keep deliberating, since it had only been considering the case “for a day and change.”
