Sean Combs trial updates: Former employee 'Mia' alleges Combs raped her

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.

Former Cassie Ventura stylist Deonte Nash testified that he saw "a lot" of blood during one instance in which he alleged Sean Combs attacked his then-girlfriend, Cassie Ventura.

Nash testified that he, along with Ventura and a Combs employee whom the prosecution identified with the pseudonym "Mia" were in Ventura's apartment helping her pack for a music festival when, Nash alleged, Combs arrived, "pulled her by the hair off the couch and hit her," referring to Ventura.

Nash told the court that an "enraged" Combs said, "Y'all got to stop f------ with me."

According to Nash's testimony, Ventura retreated to her bedroom and Combs allegedly followed and "continued to attack Cassie," hitting and kicking her "until her head hit the edge of the bed frame."

Nash testified that "when he saw the blood he just panicked."

The stylist testified that Combs then allegedly told him and "Mia," "Look what y'all made me do."

Nash told the court that he attempted to call 911 but was told to hang up. Combs instead said that Ventura would be taken by his bodyguard, known as D-Roc, to a plastic surgeon, Nash testified.

Nash further testified that on another occasion, he was with Ventura in her apartment when Combs allegedly came in, saying that he wanted to talk to her.

"He grabbed her as they were walking up. He grabbed her by the hair and said, 'You got to get the f--- out of my house,'" Nash testified.

Nash told the court that he tried to leave but Combs' security guards allegedly blocked him, preventing him from leaving, and told him to "wait for Puff to come down."

Later, when Nash and Ventura were able to leave and had driven off, Combs allegedly called and told him to pull over, Nash told the court.

"He came to the window and began to talk to Cassie," Nash testified, telling the court that Combs told Ventura "that she f----- up. That he was going to put her sex tapes on the internet. He was going to release them on schedule," referring to the video recordings of sexual encounters known as "freak-offs."

"He was going to start by sending them to her parents' jobs and her brother was a b---- and that Puff was the only one that protected her," Nash testified Combs told Ventura.

Nash testified that Ventura was in tears and that he told her to let Combs release the tapes because "he's on them, too." Ventura allegedly responded that the tapes depicted her "having sex with the other guys" and "that she didn't want to" release them, Nash told the court.

Nash testified that Ventura told him that she participated in the "freak-offs" because "Puff wanted her to."