The three-judge panel of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan did not immediately rule after hearing two hours of arguments.

At the conclusion, Circuit Judge William J. Nardini called it an “exceptionally difficult case” that raises questions of first impression “not only for this court but for any federal court in the country.”

Throughout the arguments, judges questioned whether a judge improperly considered elements of acquitted charges to sentence Combs to what his lawyer, Alexandra Shapiro, said was the most prison time ever given someone convicted of the same charges with a similar criminal history.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Christy Slavik, arguing for the government, challenged Shapiro’s claim, saying the four-year, two-month prison term given to Combs was below what federal sentencing guidelines called for and was in line with similar convictions in the 2nd Circuit.

Combs, currently in federal prison in New Jersey, is challenging his conviction and prison sentence. He was convicted last July under the federal Mann Act, which bans transporting people across state lines for any sexual crime.

But he was acquitted of sex trafficking and racketeering charges that carried the potential for a life sentence.

In sentencing Combs, Judge Arun Subramanian said: “Mr. Combs, you’re being sentenced for the offenses of conviction, NOT the crimes he was acquitted of. However, under law, the court ‘shall consider’ the nature of the offense and characteristics of the defendant.”

The judge also cited law which states that no limitation shall be placed on the “background, character and conduct” that a judge can consider.

During Thursday’s arguments, Shapiro asked the appeals panel for a speedy decision.

Combs, 56, has been behind bars since his September 2024 arrest. The Federal Bureau of Prisons says he is scheduled for release in April 2028.

His attorneys say Combs’ conviction should be reversed, or he should at least be freed and resentenced to less time.

Despite extensive written arguments on the subject, there was no discussion Thursday about claims by Combs’ lawyers that his conviction should be reversed on grounds that the First Amendment protects sexual encounters between his girlfriends and male sex workers because they were sometimes filmed and amounted to “amateur pornography.”

There was extensive discussion, though, about his lawyers’ arguments that Subramanian wrongly considered evidence of fraud and coercion that they said the jury rejected as it exonerated him on the most serious charges.

Combs’ trial last year exposed the sordid private life of one of the most influential figures in music. The case featured harrowing testimony about violence, drugs and sexual performances that witnesses said he called “freak-offs” or “hotel nights.”

He did not testify. His defense team acknowledged that he could be violent but argued that prosecutors were straining to make a federal crime out of his personal life.

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Melanie Harris was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Roy K. Altman during a hearing in Miami.

“Defendant Melanie Harris’ antisemitic threats terrorized a Jewish family,” stated U.S. Attorney Markenzy Lapointe for the Southern District of Florida.

According to the facts admitted at her change-of-plea hearing, Harris made multiple calls on Oct. 3, 2022 to victim 1’s cell phone and left four separate threatening voice mails with intent to communicate a true threat and with the knowledge that the communications would be seen as true threats.

In one of the four voicemails, Harris said “I’ll cut your f—— head off k—.” The term has been used as an anti-Jewish slur.

Neither victim 1 nor his wife, victim 2, knew the identity of the person calling with the threatening and harassing calls and voicemails, nor did they know where the calls were coming from because Harris concealed her phone number from being detected by a caller identification system, leaving the victims bereft of any knowledge of who and where the harasser was, putting them in constant fear for their lives until Harris’ arrest in March 2023.

The calls originated from Riverside, where Harris lived at the time, and were received by victim 1’s phone in the Southern District of Florida.

For over four years, Harris harassed and threatened three victims by making more than 240 calls to victim 1, leaving messages and engaging in conversations in which she unleashed antisemitic hate and direct threats against him, his family and Jews in general.

In these calls and voicemails, Harris made incessant references to the congregants murdered in the October 2018 massacre at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh.

Harris’ four-year onslaught of harassment and threats of the victims was compounded by the fact that until July 2018, victim 1 had been the executive director of the Tree of Life for over 20 years while his wife and her adult child were all longtime members of and closely associated with the synagogue.

On the same day Harris began her calls to victim 1, she also began calling the Tree of Life, leaving virtually identical hate-filled antisemitic messages referencing the deaths of elderly worshipers.

The FBI’s Miami Area Corruption Task Force, which also investigates civil rights violations, investigated the case. FBI Pittsburgh, FBI Los Angeles Riverside Resident Agency and the Riverside Police Department assisted in the investigation.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Edward N. Stamm and Nardia Haye prosecuted the case, which was indicted by Executive Assistant U.S. Attorney Harry C. Wallace, Jr.

“Melanie Harris sent threatening communications to a Jewish family using vile and inflammatory language. The nature of her threats of violence towards the victims and their faith were clearly meant to evoke a climate of fear and intimidation. Such conduct cannot be tolerated,” said Special Agent in Charge Jeffrey B. Veltri of the FBI Miami Field Office.

“Violence through words or actions is unacceptable and the FBI will continue to do everything we can to identify, arrest, and bring to justice those who engage in similar conduct,” Veltri said.

In September 2022, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland started the United Against Hate program to convene local forums that connect community groups to federal, state and local law enforcement to increase community understanding and reporting of hate crimes, build trust between law enforcement and communities and create and strengthen alliances between law enforcement and other government partners and community groups to combat unlawful acts of hate. More information on the United Against Hate program can be found at justice.gov/hatecrimes/spotlight/united-against-hate.

Anyone with information about a possible threat or believing to be a victim of a hate crime was encouraged to contact 911 and the FBI at fbi.gov/tips or at 800-225-5324.

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Timmy Lee Johnson Jr., 25, of Lancaster, on Monday admitted a charge of felony evading resulting in a fatality, along with a sentence-enhancing great bodily injury allegation and a prior criminal strike under a plea agreement with the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office.

In exchange for Johnson’s admissions, prosecutors dropped three related charges against him, including a vehicular manslaughter count.

During a hearing at the Southwest Justice Center in Murrieta, Superior Court Judge Louis Hanoian certified the terms of the plea deal and imposed the sentence stipulated by the prosecution and defense.

According to the CHP, shortly after 4 a.m. on April 15, 2023, a CHP unit patrolling southbound I-15, just north of Magnolia Avenue, in Corona spotted Johnson’s Jeep Compass without license plates and initiated a traffic stop on the freeway.

Officer Javier Navarro said the defendant failed to yield and instead stepped on the accelerator, continuing southbound.

“During the pursuit, the Jeep reached speeds up to 127 mph, exiting and re-entering the freeway several times,” Navarro said.

He said additional patrol units joined the pursuit, following Johnson as he raced into Murrieta.

“The driver exited southbound I-15 at California Oaks Road, where he failed to negotiate a curve in the roadway and overturned,” the CHP spokesman said.

Two passengers, 22-year-old Trayvon Ford of Los Angeles and another man whose identity was not disclosed, were ejected from the SUV and hurled onto the roadway, according to Navarro.

Johnson ran away as CHP officers converged on the location. He was apprehended within a few minutes without further incident.

Ford and the other party ejected onto California Oaks were taken to Inland Valley Medical Center in Wildomar, where Ford died less than an hour later. The other victim suffered major injuries from which he ultimately recovered.

Navarro said Johnson exhibited signs of being under the influence of controlled substances, which toxicology tests confirmed. The defendant was hospitalized for minor injuries but booked into jail a couple days later.

According to court records, Johnson had a prior felony conviction in another jurisdiction that wasn’t specified.

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