Jurors in the trial of Sean “Diddy” Combs will keep deliberating after they reached a partial verdict, but found themselves unable to agree on the most serious charge faced by the hip-hop mogul.
At the federal court in New York, the 12 jurors said they had agreed on four of the five counts.
Those verdicts have not been made public.
But jurors were unable to decide on the racketeering charge, which carries a possible life prison term.
Combs, 55, has pleaded not guilty to all the charges against him, which include two counts of sex trafficking and two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution, as well as a single count of racketeering.
Deliberations resume today.
The atmosphere in court on Tuesday was tense, as the rapper sat with his head bowed, hands folded in his lap.
His lawyers occasionally put their arms around him.
Over the past two months, the jury has heard from 34 witnesses, including ex-girlfriends, former employees of Combs, male escorts, and federal agents.
At around 16:30 EDT on Tuesday, the jury announced they had reached a verdict on four of the five counts, after two days of deliberations.
The panel said they could not come to an agreement on the racketeering charge because jurors on both sides had unmovable opinions.
Judge Arun Subramanian heard arguments from both the prosecution and the rapper’s defence attorneys on how to proceed, before urging the jurors to keep trying to come to a unanimous decision.
Their verdicts on the other four counts were not disclosed.
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The prosecution urged the judge to use an Allen charge, which is a set of instructions given to a hung jury to press its members to reach a unanimous decision.
Allen charges are controversial, as some believe they can put undue pressure on juries, forcing them to change their stances or cave to peer pressure, especially when their opinion is in the minority.
As well as returning to court on Wednesday, the jurors could potentially continue deliberating on July 3, when the court is normally closed ahead of the July 4 public holiday.
The panel’s unanimous decision on most of the counts after less than two days of deliberations could be a good sign for prosecutors, Robert Mintz, a criminal defence lawyer and former federal prosecutor, told the BBC.
But to gain a conviction on the racketeering charge, prosecutors needed to prove that Combs established a criminal enterprise, a coordinated plan between the musician and at least one other person to commit at least two crimes for several years.
“That was always going to be the most challenging charge for prosecutors to get a conviction on,” Mintz said.
“It’s a very complicated charge, used typically in the past in organised crime prosecution, and so it’s not surprising that that is the one charge giving the jury the most difficulty.”
If convicted on that charge, Combs faces up to life in prison.
He faces another statutory minimum sentence of 15 years if he is found guilty of sex trafficking, while transportation for purposes of prostitution carries a maximum sentence of 10 years.
