Sean Combs trial updates: 'Mia' details several 'violent' encounters with Combs

The case against Sean Combs is based primarily on the accounts of four alleged victims. On Thursday, the jury will hear from one of them, a former Combs employee testifying under the pseudonym "Mia."

Federal prosecutors alleged Combs subjected "Mia" to physical violence, psychological torture and threats of financial and reputational harm that caused her to engage in sex acts with him.

"Mia" kept a scrap book that contained articles about Combs that the defense wants the jury to see.

"She loved Mr. Combs and wanted to promote his legacy," defense attorney Alexandra Shapiro said.

For prosecutors, "Mia's" testimony is meant, at least in part, to convince the jury that Combs used forced labor as part of the criminal enterprise they said he was operating.

Combs has denied running a criminal enterprise but a stylist who used to work for Bad Boy testified he committed crimes during his employment.

"Did you participate in any criminal conduct for Mr. Combs?" defense attorney Xavier Donaldson asked the stylist, Deonte Nash.

"Yes," Nash responded.

The cross-examination quickly moved on and Nash did not specify which crimes he committed.

Nash, who remains a friend of Cassie Ventura, also said he witnessed Combs beating her "until her head hit the edge of the bed frame," drawing blood and leaving a gash by her eyebrow.

Another time, Nash said Ventura wanted to escape Combs by going over a balcony. He also told the jury Ventura confided that Combs forced her into unwanted sex with male prostitutes, telling him, "I don't want to go to the hotel and 'freak off' with him."

Court resumes with Nash under cross-examination.

Deonte Nash remains a friend to Cassie Ventura to this day, according to his testimony during cross-examination. He told the court that he helped her pick a wedding dress and also talked to her about what she would wear while testifying at the current trial.

"It's freezing in here. I don't know how you all do this all day," Nash remarked upon reentering the courtroom after a break with a jacket on.

Defense attorney Xavier Donaldson questioned Nash about his recollection of seeing a bloodied gash over Ventura's eyebrow after she allegedly hit her head on a bed frame after what Nash testified was an attack by Combs.

"That startled you, correct?" Donaldson asked.

"Absolutely," Nash testified.

"You still had interactions with Mr. Combs?" Donaldson asked.

"Yes," Nash told the court in response.

"So, after the violence by Mr. Combs you invited him and Cassie to come with you to a Halloween show, correct?" Donaldson asked.

"Yes," Nash again testified.

Court has adjourned for the day, Nash's cross-examination will resume Thursday.

Following Nash's testimony, the next witness the prosecution is expected to call will be a woman testifying under the pseudonym "Mia," whose testimony prosecutors have said they expect to take the remainder of the week.

Darla Miles reports from Lower Manhattan with the latest details on the trial.

Cassie Ventura once thought about climbing over a balcony to escape Sean Combs, her friend and former stylist Deonte Nash testified on Wednesday.

Nash testified that the Ventura escape attempt occurred after he allegedly saw Combs get violent with Ventura and threaten to release videos of her having sex during a "freak-off." Nash told the court he had pushed Ventura to catch a cab so that she could hide from Combs in a hotel.

Nash testified that Combs showed up at his house with a bodyguard and another employee "and he was like, 'Where the f--- is she?' He started looking all around my house. He looked in the closets. He looked in the oven. I have no idea why he looked in the oven."

Nash testified that when Combs learned Ventura was staying in a hotel, which Nash told the court was the Le Montrose in Beverly Hills, Combs allegedly took Nash to the hotel with him and told Nash to get Ventura to come down. Nash told the court Ventura "was frightened" after he told her "that Puff was downstairs looking for her."

Nash told the jury Ventura said "Oh no" and then "went to the balcony and said she was going to go over the balcony."

Instead, Nash testified that he sneaked her out of a side door.

On cross-examination, the defense asserted that Combs having the final say over Cassie Ventura's physical looks was a business decision and not an element of coercion, as prosecutors have alleged.

"It's important for the person who ran the label that the person look good, fair to say?" defense attorney Xavier Donaldson asked Nash.

"Sometimes, yeah," Nash told the court in response.

Deonte Nash, who testified pursuant to a subpoena, told the jury that he "quite often" saw Cassie Ventura with bruises and that he "quite often" knew her to spend nights with Combs in hotel rooms, allegedly against her will.

According to Nash's testimony, on her 29th birthday, Combs told Ventura, "F--- you. I do all this for you and you can't do this one thing for me."

"Cassie said, 'He's just mad that I don't want to go to the hotel and 'freak-off' with him,'" Nash testified Ventura told him.

Nash testified that back at Ventura's apartment, Combs told a small group gathered there that "Y'all's girl going to get some d--- tonight" and that Ventura allegedly packed a black bag with sex toys and cash.

Nash testified that Ventura told him she did not want to go but that Combs "was making her do that s---."

"Could you tell whether Cassie was under the influence?" prosecutor Maureen Comey asked.

"Oh yeah," Nash replied. "She was super high."

The stylist told the court that Combs allegedly was high too but Ventura more so.

Several years later, on New Year's Eve 2017 in Las Vegas, according to Nash's testimony, Ventura wanted to stay inside but Combs "pulled me in the hallway and told me he spent all that money that she needed to get ready."

At the end of the night, Nash testified, Ventura woke him up and said "Puff wanted to invite a guy over."

"I just went 'uck' and went to my hotel room," Nash told the court.

Nash told the court that he later saw a man knocking on the door of Ventura and Combs' room. "Somebody opened the door and he went in," Nash testified.

At the end of direct examination, Nash told prosecutor Maurene Comey that he's filed no lawsuits against Combs and has demanded no money from him. When asked how he feels about Combs, Nash told the court, "I don't hate him."

Court took a brief break before Nash's cross-examination.