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Defense witnesses say they did not see Combs with gun

Sean "Puffy" Combs

By CNN Producer Shannon Troetel

NEW YORK (CNN) -- A security guard who worked at a club at the center of a shooting case involving Sean "Puffy" Combs testified Thursday the rap star was not in the immediate area where the gunfire erupted.

Three people were injured in the December 27, 1999 incident at Club New York. Combs, 31, and his bodyguard, Anthony "Wolf" Jones, 34, are charged with gun possession and bribery in connection with the shooting.

Other witnesses called by the defense said they never saw Combs with a gun.

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Trenton Stewart, 29, said that while working as a security guard at the club, he broke up a fight between Combs, Jones, and Matthew "Scar" Allen just before gunfire erupted.

Stewart said he heard Allen say to Combs, "You think you got money? I got money, too. He's nobody." Allen, Stewart said, then threw a wad of money at Combs.

"As I was turning around to face Scar, that's when I heard gunshots," Stewart said.

Stewart said he was standing face-to-face with Allen, and that Jones and Combs were standing immediately behind him. The gunfire, he said, came from an area to his "oblique left" -- a military term meaning one-half of a left face.

When asked by defense attorney Ben Brafman if there was "any doubt in your mind that all the shots you heard came from your oblique left," Stewart said, "No doubt in my mind."

Earlier in the day, the owner and general manager of the club testified separately that they observed Combs at the club, but never saw him with a gun.

"He was hanging out, dancing. There was nothing in his hands," said Eric Funk, the manager. Asked by defense attorney Johnnie Cochran whether he saw a bulge in Combs' pants, Funk said no.

Prosecutors alleged that Combs had concealed a 9mm handgun in his waistband that night.

The first witness of the day, Michael Ciravolo, a retired New York City police officer who heads a security and investigations company that does business with Combs, testified that he examined the interior of rap star's Lincoln Navigator after the shooting. He determined there was no way a gun could be passed from the rear passenger seat to the front passenger seat.

One gun was found under the front passenger seat in the vehicle, and police said another was thrown out the Navigator's window.

Police have testified that Combs was sitting in the rear passenger seat and Jones in the front passenger seat when the vehicle was stopped after fleeing the shooting scene.

On cross examination, lead prosecutor Matthew Bogdanos showed Ciravolo a videotape of a police demonstration of how a gun could have been passed within the Navigator.

"Based on what I observed I still firmly maintain my opinion," Ciravolo said.

His company, Beau Dietl and Associates, has been working for Combs since the night of the shooting.

Combs and Jones are charged on two counts of gun possession. In addition, Combs and Jones were charged with bribery for allegedly offering to $50,00 to Wardel Fenderson, Combs' driver, to claim ownership of the gun that police found in the Navigator.

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