Last week, we reported that the disgraced music mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs was found not guilty on three of the five federal charges that he was facing. Indeed, he was only convicted on the lesser of the two charges that he was facing.
This led to mass outrage, as many assumed that this meant that Diddy would get a lenient prison sentence. Unfortunately for Diddy, however, one of the lawyers who represented the late O.J. Simpson is now predicting that the rapper will still get sentenced to a “substantial” amount of time behind bars.
Diddy’s Verdict
Diddy, 55, was only found guilty of the Mann Act Transportation of both Cassie Ventura and an ex-girlfriend going by the pseudonym Jane. He was found not guilty of count one, the alleged racketeering conspiracy. He was also found not guilty of count two and count four, the sex trafficking of Ventura and Jane.
Diddy had been facing life in prison if he was convicted on all charges. He could still get twenty years, ten for each counts. Diddy was denied bail, and his sentencing was scheduled for October 3.
Some legal experts have predicted that Diddy will get a far lighter sentence than twenty years. Robert Shapiro, the first member and initial chair of OJ Simpson’s defense team, is speaking out to say that despite this, he still doesn’t think that Diddy will be a free man anytime soon.
Shapiro Sounds Off
“I have to look into a crystal ball. And this is going to be a call that only one person is going to make,” Shapiro told Fox News. “Many times we will rely on a probation report or a pre-sentence report where they calculate the guidelines.”
Shapiro went on to explain that judges will typically follow these guidelines. That’s why the former defense attorney believes that Diddy will likely be sentenced to 2.5-3.5-years behind bars.
“Whether or not he had a criminal history, I don’t know. That could raise it,” Shapiro continued. “But, having said that and having seen that this judge did not release him on bail, I think a message may be coming that you’re going to be spending a lot more time, so no reason to let you come out and come back in.”
Shapiro then cited the fact that when denying Diddy bail, Judge Arun Subramanian brought up the disturbing 2016 surveillance footage that showed the music mogul brutally assaulting Ventura.
“If the judge looks at that tape in his mind and is reminded about it again,” he added. “I think there is a real chance that a substantial sentence will be forthcoming.”
Watch Shapiro discuss Diddy’s case earlier this year in the video below.
Celebrity Lawyer Weighs In
Celebrity defense attorney David Chesnoff weighed in on this as well. He acknowledged that there are indications that Diddy will get a low sentence. However, he also said that Judge Subramanian can actually do a “variance.”
“The guidelines in this case, based on what he got convicted of and the lack of criminal history, would lead you to think that it could be a rather low sentence,” Chesnoff explained. “And considering the amount of time he’s been in, he’d be out quickly, but on the other hand, the judge is allowed to do what’s called a variance — when the guidelines don’t take into account factors that the judge is allowed to consider.”
“I got the sense from this judge that he feels that [Diddy is] deserving of punishment, otherwise he wouldn’t have kept him in,” he stated. “So it’s hard to speculate. The maximum sentence is 10 and 10. That’s very unlikely. But do I think that he’ll get somewhere above what the defense wants and lower than what the government wants? I think he’ll split the baby.”
Related: Rosie O’Donnell Has Surprising Reaction To Diddy Being Found Not Guilty On 3 Counts – ‘Got Me…’
Diddy’s Legal Team Fires Back
As for Diddy’s legal team, they’ve pledged to keep fighting until he is a free man.
“We are not nearly done fighting. We are just getting started,” Diddy’s lead counsel Marc Agnifilo said outside the courthouse after the verdict came in. “To win this and to defeat the prosecutors from the Southern District of New York takes effort from beginning to end.”
“Today was a major, major step in the right direction,” he added. “But we fight on and we’re going to win, and we’re not going to stop until he walks out of prison a free man to his family.”
Diddy’s reputation has taken such a nosedive in the court of public opinion that many feel that he should be locked up for life. The court of public opinion also condemned Simpson, with the vast majority of Americans believing that he got away with murdering his ex-wife Nicole Brown and her friend Ronald Goldman.
Before he passed away last year at the age of 76, Simpson lived out his final years in regular seclusion. Indeed, much of society wanted nothing to do with him. If Diddy is in fact freed, it seems that he will likely be meeting the same fate when it comes to dealing with the public.
Only time will tell what Diddy’s ultimate sentence will be!
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