Sean 'Diddy' Combs trial takeaways: LAPD officer, arson investigator and Cassie Ventura's stylist testify as judge denies motion for a mistrial

The trial of Sean "Diddy" Combs continued Wednesday in Manhattan federal court, with more witnesses — including an LAPD officer, an arson investigator and Cassie Ventura's friend and former stylist — testifying in the sex trafficking case.

Ventura gave birth to her third child Tuesday, less than two weeks after testifying against Combs.

Federal prosecutors say that for decades, Combs abused, threatened and coerced women, including Ventura, to participate in marathon sexual encounters called "freak offs" and used his business empire, along with guns, kidnapping and arson, to conceal his crimes. The 55-year-old hip-hop mogul has been charged with sex trafficking, racketeering conspiracy and transportation to engage in prostitution.

Combs's former assistant Capricorn Clark told the court on Tuesday that he repeatedly threatened her life, subjected her to lie detector tests and forced her at gunpoint to join him in an apparent plot to kill rapper Kid Cudi.

Combs has pleaded not guilty. If convicted, he could face life in prison.

Here are some key takeaways from Wednesday's testimony culled from various reporters and news organizations in the courtroom, including CNN, NBC News and the Washington Post.

LAPD officer who responded to report of a break-in at Kid Cudi’s home takes the stand

Christopher Ignacio, a veteran officer with the Los Angeles Police Department who responded to a report of a break-in at Kid Cudi’s Hollywood Hills home in December 2011, was the first witness called to testify on Wednesday.

Ignacio told the court that he noticed a black Cadillac Escalade parked outside Kid Cudi’s home when he arrived, and that the vehicle took off when he pulled up behind it. He ran the license plate and the vehicle was registered to Bad Boy Productions Inc., Combs’s company.

Ignacio said he then entered the home through an unlocked front door and noticed several Christmas gifts had been unwrapped, including watches and purses.

When Kid Cudi arrived at the scene, he filed a trespassing report, Ignacio said.

Big picture: Prosecutors appear to be using the LAPD officer's testimony to corroborate previous witnesses. Last week, Kid Cudi testified that he believed Combs had broken into his home and that several gifts for his family and friends had been opened. On Tuesday, Clark testified that Combs forced her at gunpoint to go with him to Kid Cudi's house, and later chased after Kid Cudi's car in Combs's Escalade when it approached.

Arson investigator says fire set to Kid Cudi’s Porsche was a ‘targeted’ crime

Lance Jiminez, a Los Angeles Fire Department arson investigator who responded to a report of a car fire at Kid Cudi's home in January 2012, testified next. Jiminez said he found remnants of a Molotov cocktail — an Olde English malt liquor bottle with a burned “designer-type” handkerchief on the center console — inside the rapper's Porsche. It had been dropped through a cut in the car’s canvas top, Jiminez said. But the homemade fire bomb did not work as intended, Jiminez testified: the bottle did not break, and the handkerchief fell out, causing only minor damage to the vehicle.

The bottle, cloth and a lighter found next to the car were tested for DNA, Jiminez said, and a partial profile consistent with a female contributor was found on the bottle.

Jimenez called the fire set inside Kid Cudi's Porsche a "targeted" crime, noting the vehicle was hard to see from the street and that another car in the rapper’s driveway was left untouched.

Why it matters: That characterization could be key for prosecutors, who are trying to prove arson as part of their racketeering conspiracy allegations against Combs.

Cassie Ventura’s stylist says he jumped on Combs’s back during attack

Deonte Nash, a celebrity stylist and friend of Combs’s ex-girlfriend Cassie Ventura, was the third witness called to testify on Wednesday. Nash told the court that he heard Combs threaten Ventura with violence on multiple occasions.

Nash said Combs would threaten not to release Ventura’s music “anytime she did something he didn’t like.” Combs would also threaten to release sexually explicit videos of Ventura to her parents at their workplaces to get them fired, Nash testified.

The stylist also said he saw bruises on Ventura “quite often.”

The stylist recalled a violent incident in Ventura's apartment, where he was helping her prepare for a music festival. According to Nash, Combs came in and began to kick and hit her. Nash said he and another employee — who is expected to testify later this week under the pseudonym "Mia" — each jumped on Combs's back in an attempt to stop him, but were thrown off.

Nash said that Combs continued to hit Ventura until her head hit the edge of the bed frame, causing her to cut her head and begin to bleed. He said he didn’t report the incident to police because he feared retaliation from Combs.

Big picture: Ventura testified about the incident earlier in the trial. Prosecutors showed the jury photos of Ventura's bloodied eyebrow during her testimony. Ventura also testified that Combs repeatedly threatened to release sexually explicit videos of her — part of the control she alleges he held over her during their more than decade-long relationship.

Nash also told the court that Ventura told him she did not want to participate in the “freak offs,” but that she reluctantly did so due to Combs’s demands.

And Nash said Combs showed up at his apartment once searching for Ventura.

“He looked in the oven — I don’t know why he looked in the oven,” Nash said.

Defense motion for a mistrial is denied

During his direct testimony, Jiminez, the fire investigator, said that fingerprints taken from Kid Cudi’s home after the alleged break-in were collected by police but later destroyed, so he could not compare them with prints taken during his arson investigation. Combs’s defense objected and moved for a mistrial based on alleged “prosecutorial misconduct,” arguing that prosecutors knew that this line of questioning would raise the idea in front of jurors that Combs’s wealth and influence had something to do with the destruction of evidence.

“This type of conspiracy theory is out there, and the type of implication we believe these questions were designed to create plays right into that,” Alexandra Shapiro, one of Combs’s defense attorneys, argued.

Judge Arun Subramanian denied the motion. "There was absolutely no testimony from the witness that was prejudicial in any way, shape or form," Subramanian said.

But the judge instructed the jury to disregard the testimony about the fingerprints, saying it was “irrelevant” to the case.