Sean 'Diddy' Combs trial updates: Combs' ex-assistant 'Mia' to continue testimony next week

The defense sought on cross-examination to undercut the credibility of Los Angeles Fire Department arson investigator Lance Jimenez and questioned him about a single black glove found on the back seat of rapper Kid Cudi’s Porsche 911 Cabriolet. Jimenez previously testified about what he discovered during his investigation of an attempt to set the car on fire with a Molotov cocktail.

Jimenez testified that he did not send the glove for testing because he did not find it significant to his investigation.

“I believed it belonged to the owner,” Jimenez testified. “It was a driving glove, according to him,” referring to Scott Mescudi, aka Cudi.

“You thought it was significant enough that you talked to the owner about it?” defense attorney Marc Agnifilo asked.

“Yes,” Jimenez replied.

“He said it was his glove, correct?” Agnifilo asked.

“That is my recollection, yes,” Jimenez testified.

“Did you put anything in your report about this single glove?” Agnifilo questioned.

“I don’t think I did,” Jimenez testified.

On re-direct examination by the prosecution, Jimenez called the glove “irrelevant.”

The defense said that female DNA was allegedly found on the malt liquor bottle filled with gasoline that was used to make the Molotov cocktail and that was found in the vehicle, but Jimenez had already testified to prosecutors that DNA was outside of his area of expertise.

Jimenez testified on cross-examination that Cassie Ventura did not call him back when he attempted to contact her about the car fire incident and that Capricorn Clark declined to speak with him.

The cross-examination did not mention fingerprints.

Jimenez’s testimony has concluded. The next scheduled witness is Deonte Nash, a stylist and friend of Ventura's.

Defense attorneys for Sean Combs called it “outrageous” that federal prosecutors asked a Los Angeles Fire Department arson investigator about the destruction of fingerprints that he testified had been lifted from Scott Mescudi’s front door.

The investigator, Lance Jimenez, testified he did not order the prints destroyed. He told the court that he blamed “someone in the LAPD.”

When prosecutor Christy Slavik asked whether it was “unusual” for evidence to be destroyed in an open case, the defense objected and Judge Arun Subramanian summoned the attorneys to a sidebar.

The judge then sent the jury from the courtroom for a break. The defense moved for a mistrial, alleging Slavik’s question was meant to plant an inference in jurors’ minds that Combs was responsible for the destruction of evidence.

Subramanian denied the mistrial and gave the jury an instruction upon their return from the break.

“Before the break, you heard some testimony about fingerprint cards and I’m now instructing you that questions regarding the destruction of the fingerprint cards, and the answers, are irrelevant to this case and to the defendant and are not to be considered by you,” Subramanian said.

Jimenez testified that he tried calling several people at Mescudi's suggestion, including previous witnesses Capricorn Clark and Cassie Ventura, and was unable to reach them.

There were never any charges connected to the arson but the case has not been closed. Jimenez testified that the current status of the case is “inactive pending anything further.”

Los Angeles Fire Department arson investigator Lance Jimenez testified that it did not take him long to conclude that the car fire at rapper Kid Cudi's residence on Jan. 9, 2012, was caused by a “makeshift firebomb” commonly known as a Molotov cocktail.

“Somebody had lit it, cut the roof and dropped it in the front seat,” Jimenez told the jury. “In my opinion it was targeted.”

Jimenez told the court that he took note of the slash in the canvas top of the black Porsche 911 Cabriolet and “burn patterns” that he said were on the vehicle's seat, carpeting and roof.

“There was a bottle on the front seat and there was a cloth handkerchief on the center console that was burned,” Jimenez testified. “Inside the bottle I observed a liquid that gave an odor I know to be gasoline.”

Jimenez further testified that he noticed a disposable red lighter on the ground. He walked the jury through photos of the damage to the car, including soot damage on the driver’s door, burns on the interior and the cut in the canvas roof.

The jury also saw a picture of the disposable lighter, the 40-ounce Old English 800 malt liquor bottle that Jimenez testified was used to make the Molotov cocktail, and a burned handkerchief

“The cloth was more of a silky type material. I think it just fell out of the bottle," Jimenez testified. "The bottle didn’t break so the liquid wasn’t able to disburse. The fire just smoldered out. It didn’t cause damage I think it was intended for."

Jimenez told the court that Cudi, born Scott Mescudi, had his home swept for fingerprints after the earlier break-in that he reported to the Los Angeles Police Department.

Two prints were lifted from the glass front door, but Jimenez told the jury the fingerprint cards he turned in to the LAPD evidence unit were destroyed in August of 2012.

The mention of fingerprint evidence allegedly being inexplicably destroyed prompted an objection from the defense and a motion for a mistrial.

“The only way to cure the outrageous prejudice is to move for a mistrial,” defense attorney Alexandra Shapiro said.

Shapiro accused the government of prosecutorial misconduct for asking the witness whether it was “unusual” for fingerprint evidence to be destroyed. She accused the government of trying to plant an idea that Combs was responsible for the destruction of the fingerprints lifted from Mescudi's front door.

“It was becoming clearer and clearer that this inference was what the government was doing this for,” Shapiro said. “There’s no way to un-ring this bell.”

Prosecutor Christy Slavik responded that a mistrial is “absolutely unwarranted.”

“The application for a mistrial is denied,” Judge Arun Subramanian declared, saying that there was no testimony in response to the question of whether it was unusual for fingerprint evidence to have been destroyed.

Subramanian said he would strike the testimony and issue a curative instruction to the jury that the questions about the fingerprint destruction are irrelevant to the case and the responses should be disregarded.

The Los Angeles police officer who responded to Kid Cudi’s home on Dec. 22, 2011, after the rapper reported a break-in there testified that a black SUV he saw leaving the scene was registered to Sean Combs’ company.

LAPD officer Christopher Ignacio testified that he walked through the home with Cudi, whose birth name is Scott Mescudi, and recorded the incident as trespassing, which he described to the court as “someone entering someone’s property without the owner’s consent.”

Ignacio further testified that he ran the license plate from a black Cadillac Escalade SUV seen driving from the house. The jury saw that the resulting report showed the vehicle's registered owner as Bad Boy Productions, Inc., which Combs' owned.

Capricorn Clark, Combs' former assistant, testified Tuesday that Combs, whom she told the court was armed with a handgun, and a bodyguard entered Mescudi’s home after allegedly kidnapping Clark from her apartment and forcing her to join them.

Mescudi previously testified that nothing was missing from his home after the break-in but that he found Christmas presents opened on the counter and his dog locked in a bathroom.

On cross-examination, Ignacio testified that his report said nothing about a firearm being involved.

“You had no information that there was a gun involved?” defense attorney Brian Steel asked.

“I don’t believe so,” Ignacio responded.

“Did you hear anything about a kidnapping?” Steel asked.

“No,” Ignacio answered.

The next witness is the Los Angeles Fire Department arson investigator who responded to the firebombing of Mescudi’s car in 2012.