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Courtroom sketch

90 days prior, Sean "Diddy" Combs dropped to the ground in a New York court after a tribunal found him not guilty of sex trafficking and racketeering charges.

"I'm going back home," he stated, turning around to face his family, who had supported him every day the legal proceedings.

This past Friday, a quieter iteration of the hip-hop mogul sat unmoved and stationary in his chair, as the judge sentenced him to more than four years in prison.

Once the judge completed announcing his ruling, the entertainer peered over his shoulder at his relatives and seemed to whisper the words: "I love you, I'm sorry."

This marked a solemn instant to denote the termination of a chaotic eight-week trial that permanently changed the general view of Combs - formerly a globally recognized music star.

Courtroom Displays

The jury saw disturbing recordings of Combs' reputed gatherings - intimate gatherings he recorded featuring hired male escorts and his ex-girlfriend Cassandra Ventura and "Jane", an anonymous victim.

Additionally they viewed a recording that had earlier spread online, of him striking Ventura in a lodging establishment corridor.

Judicial Findings

In July, a panel of 12 New Yorkers acquitted Combs, 55, of sex trafficking and racketeering charges - that could have resulted in lifetime incarceration - but determined him responsible for transportation to engage in prostitution.

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Family members arriving for sentencing

During Friday's proceedings, the magistrate stated to a disheartened Combs that his crimes and abuse of his former partners warranted 50 months in incarceration.

During his address to the court that Combs had employed his celebrity and influence to "subjugate" his victims, the music mogul did not look up, maintaining a blank demeanor for the judge's 20-minute speech.

His group exceeding thirty relatives were crowded into the court chamber behind him.

Legal Arguments

His attorneys hoped he would be out of prison in a short period, petitioning the judge for a fourteen-month term, the majority of which he had already served.

Prosecutors had accused Combs of operating an illegal organization to force females into unwanted and drug-fuelled sex acts.

Despite being found not guilty of those most severe accusations, trafficking and organized crime, they had sought a judgment of more than eleven years in incarceration.

Legal Hearings

Throughout the full-day session, the court listened to extended addresses from several of his attorneys, his offspring, a pastor and a penal system reform activist who informed the court that Combs was a reformed and substance-free person since detention.

Furthermore they observed a assembled recording from his lawyers featuring him with his sons and daughters as well as the burial ceremony for his past romantic interest Kim Porter, the mother of some of his children who deceased three years prior.

Victim Impact

But the court did not hear from the victims themselves, after one person who planned to speak, Mia, a past aide to Combs who provided testimony incognito, retracted subsequent to the defence wrote a letter describing her as untruthful.

The magistrate acknowledged the "brave women" who had the courage to come forward with the claims regarding Combs, informing them they weren't merely addressing 12 men and women in the jury box".

Instead of personal testimonies on Friday, the magistrate shared numerous accuser statements from evidence, stating to Combs: "These were significant violations that unfixably injured two women."

Combs' Address

Combs himself addressed the court for the first time after the start of his legal proceedings.

Releasing a substantial breath before standing to read his speech, he implored the court for "leniency".

He perused wearing spectacles from a document before him, attempting to sustain visual connection with the magistrate while informing him: "I have nobody to blame but myself."

He broke into tears as he rotated to look at his relatives and inform his maternal parent: "I disappointed you as a child."

Loved Ones' Accounts

This wasn't the initial occasion weeping transpired during the session.

Numerous defendant backers cried as six of his seven children came to the lectern to request the magistrate for a lenient judgment, telling him they needed their father.

The female and male offspring grouped tightly with interlocked limbs as numerous teared up while addressing the court official.

Sentencing Rationale

The judge said during his sentencing that he had accounted for Combs' family ties, but mentioned he needed to include the harm he had inflicted to his two victims.

The crimes were serious, he elaborated, noting they took place even after a government inquiry and the release of footage depicting him assaulting Ventura in the hallway of a hotel.

"A record of positive deeds can't wash away your history," he declared.

Closing Statements

Yet, he addressed a disheartened Combs, who twice tilted his head up and sighed, there was light at the end of his jail sentence.

"Sir Combs, yourself and your relatives, you are going to overcome this," he stated.

When the judge was done giving his speech, Combs provided a swift gesture to his multiple loved ones and associates, before slipping quietly back through the door to be transported to a national correctional institution in the Brooklyn area.