B (12:58)
On December 22, 2011, Sean Combs came to Capricorn Clark's house with a gun in his hand. He told her to get dressed and get into his car where one of his bodyguards was waiting so they could kill Kid Cudi. Capricorn later testified that she told Combs she didn't want to go, but he forced her to, and that's what led to the eventual kidnapping charge. Capricorn testified that when they got there, Combs told her to wait in the car and he and his bodyguard went inside. Once they shut the door behind them, Capricorn picked up the phone and called Cassie to warn her and Cuddy. Cassie and Cudi were in a hotel room together, so thankfully they were safe for the moment. But when Cudi heard that Holmes was inside his house, he said he wanted to go over there to confront him. Capricorn told him not to because Diddy had threatened to kill him, but despite Capricorn's warning. Cudi headed back to his house anyways and he decided to call Combs to say he was coming. He asked Combs if he was in the house and Combs said, quote, I'm over here waiting for you. They didn't speak for long since Cudi was already on his way. And after they hung up, Cudi called the police. Capricorn testified that then they heard Cudi driving up the road and that Combs and the bodyguard both got back in the car and they started chasing after Cuddy. But they gave up when they passed the police cars heading to Cudi's house. However, the police had seen his car as well, and one of them wrote down the license plate number as the car sped in the other direction. When police got to Kid Cudi's house, they started processing the scene and they found two odd things. The first was Christmas presents that had been unwrapped. And the second is that Cudi's dog, who was usually let free to roam the house, was locked in the bathroom, but there was nothing stolen and no sign of a break in. However, according to Cuddy, his home security cameras had been turned around. Then later on, when the police ran the plates for the car that was fleeing the scene, it turned out to be registered to Combs company, Bad Boy Entertainment. While it definitely seemed fishy, the police only recorded the event as possible trespassing, and that was that. Meanwhile, Combs had gathered Capricorn and Cassie back at his own house, where he proceeded to beat Cassie relentlessly. Capricorn watched as he kicked her over and over again while she was in the fetal position on the floor. Capricorn couldn't stand to see her friend get abused like this. But Combs threatened to beat her up too, if she tried to step in. When Capricorn later testified about it in court, just thinking about this moment almost made her burst into tears. After Combs allegedly finished beating Cassie, he told both women to convince Cudi not to tell the police he had something to do with the break in or else he'd kill all of them. The investigation had fizzled on its own anyway, but that didn't make Cassie any less terrified. The next day, she emailed her mother, Regina Ventura, to tell her what was going on. In that email, Cassie also shared new developments in this situation. Apparently, Combs had three threatened to release revenge porn of her unless she ended her relationship with Cudi. Regina had no idea Combs was abusive, so she was shocked and felt physically ill while reading the message. And that wasn't even the end of it. Cassie also said that Combs had threatened to get someone to hurt her and that he'd have it done while he was out of the country so it couldn't be tied back to him. That was actually a big reason why Cassie sent the email. She was flying out to see her mom that same day, but she wanted to tell her everything as soon as possible in case something happened to her before she could get there. Thankfully, she arrived at her mom's house safely. Once Cassie was there, Regina urged her to let her take pictures of the bruises that Combs had recently given her. Cassie agreed, and those photos were shown to the court in 2025. But at the time this was happening in 2011, the photos did little to put a stop to Combs angry vengeful rampage. He soon called Regina himself, and instead of trying to smooth the situation over, he went on offense. Combs said Regina owed him money because he'd spent so much on her daughter's career to the tune of $20,000. But that's not what he was really concerned about. This was a power play on Diddy's end because if he didn't get that money, he was threatening to release revenge porn of Cassie. Regina wasn't going to risk anything like that happening to her daughter. In order to come up with the money, she took out a loan against her home equity. She got wire instructions from a bad boy employee and sent the funds. Proof of this wire transfer was also shown during the trial. But four days later, Combs apparently had a change of heart and he sent the money back. Cuddy accompanied Cassie back home for Christmas, but they knew it had to end soon or else Combs rage and violence would continue to escalate. In fact, Combs had specifically told Cassie that if they didn't end things, he'd come after both of them. Specifically, he threatened to blow up Cudi's car. With that, Cassie felt like she was forced to go back to Combs. But of course, the nightmare was far from over. We already know that it would still be years before Cassie could safely get away from Combs. But at this point, Cudi still wasn't safe either. In one of the crazier parts of the testimony, prosecutor Johnson asks Cudi why he was concerned for his and Cassie's safety. Before he can answer, Brian Steele, who is one of Diddy's defense attorneys, objects. The judge overrules it, and they go back and forth, and then it goes to a sidebar. The judge asks Steele, now what is your objection? To the question that was asked, Steele answers. His objection is to the question, why are you scared of Mr. Combs? Because he says his answer is going to be because Mr. Combs is violent and he has had other people killed. We didn't find this out until the sidebars were released, and there was a ton of commentary online and on social media of whether Diddy's lawyer just snitched on him. But Cudi's concerns were valid because on January 9, 2012, about a month after the break in, Cudi was at a friend's house when he got a call from his dog sitter who said one of his cars was on fire. When police arrived on the scene, they found that someone had cut open the cloth roof of Cudi's Porsche 911 convertible and put a Molotov cocktail inside. The arson investigator who processed the scene was named Lance Jimenez. One of the first things he noticed was that the Molotov cocktail was made with a designer silk handkerchief rather than a simple towel or rag. Clearly, whoever was behind this saw money as no object. Jimenez also noticed that there was another car parked in the driveway that had been left alone, and the damaged Porsche wasn't easily visible from the road to him. This meant someone had to know it was there. In other words, the attack was targeted. Police processed the scene, but an investigation would take time. So the next day, Cudi decided to take matters into his own hands and set up a meeting with Sean Combs.
