Diddy’s sentencing hearing is underway, and six of his children addressed the court on Friday.
Per on-the-ground reporting from Complex’s Shawn Setaro, six of the Bad Boy Records founder’s children gave “short, tearful speeches” during Friday’s hearing. These speeches focused on how they see their father as a changed man, as well as their need to have him back at home.
“We cannot watch our baby sister grow up fatherless the same way we grew up motherless,” D’Lila Combs, one of daughters, said at Friday’s hearing, per Setaro.
Defense attorney Nicole Westmoreland also spoke on Friday, arguing that Diddy “can reach so many more [people] on the outside than he can on the inside.” According to Westmoreland, keeping Diddy in prison would be “of no benefit to anyone.”
As previously reported, this is in line with Diddy’s own comments in support of a lighter sentence, including in a letter he penned to Judge Arun Subramanian earlier this week.
“I literally lost my mind. I was dead wrong for putting my hands on the woman that I loved,” Diddy wrote, referencing Cassie, who testified in his trial. “I’m sorry for that and always will be. My domestic violence will always be a heavy burden that I will have to forever carry.”
The split verdict in Diddy’s case, reached in July, found him cleared of sex trafficking and racketeering but convicted on a pair of prostitution-related charges. Shortly before Friday's hearing began, Diddy’s legal team shared an 11-minute video featuring footage of him with his family.
Among those who have disputed claims of Diddy being a “changed man” since his initial arrest is Cassie, who also wrote a letter to Judge Subramanian this week. In it, she argued that Diddy “has no interest in changing or becoming better,” adding he “will always be the same cruel, power-hungry, manipulative man that he is.”