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Prosecutor urges Puffy jurors to use 'reason'

Combs is on trial for bribery and gun possession

NEW YORK (CNN) -- A Manhattan prosecutor argued Tuesday that evidence shows rapper Sean "Puffy" Combs was carrying a weapon and fired it the night of a nightclub shooting in 1999.

Assistant District Attorney Matthew Bogdanos took defense attorneys to task in his closing arguments for criticizing his case as "starstruck prosecution."

"There are no greats at that table," he said referring to the defendants, "just men who commit crimes."

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"This is not the Puffy trial. It's not the Jennifer Lopez trial. We forget ... it's about three people who got shot in a club," Bogdanos said.

Combs and bodyguard Anthony "Wolf" Jones are charged with gun possession and bribery in connection with the December 27, 1999 shooting at Club New York that left three people wounded. Neither is charged with shooting anyone.

Another co-defendant, rapper Jamaal "Shyne" Barrow, is charged with attempted murder and assault. Lopez, Combs' then girlfriend, was not charged in the case.

Bogdanos reminded the jury that five different witnesses testified seeing Combs with a gun on the night of the shooting.

"All five people can't be mistaken," he said.

Bogdanos ripped into Jones' lawyer, Michael Bauchner for using the rhyme "If Tony didn't have a gun in the bar, Tony didn't have a gun in the car" in his closing arguments Monday.

"What do they offer in response to five witnesses? They offer rhymes," Bogdanos said. "Do not substitute their rhymes for reason because your reason convicts everyone at that table."

"It's not the lawbreaker that matters. It's the law broken," he said.

The trial, heard by Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Charles Solomon, was expected to go to the jury Wednesday morning after six weeks of testimony.

The 12 jurors -- seven men and five women -- showed up with suitcases and other bags, ready for sequestered deliberations.

Laying out guns on the railing of the jury box, Bogdanos said a gun found on a Manhattan street that night and another 9mm pistol found in Combs' Lincoln Navigator are so similar they had to belong to the same person -- Puffy Combs.

Bogdanos said the two guns were the same model, had the same finish, carried the same amount of rounds in their chambers, and had both been fired.

Bogdanos said there was "a 99 million to one chance" that guns so similar could be found at random.

During the trial, prosecutors alleged that Combs tossed one of the guns out of his Lincoln Navigator during a police chase. They said Combs later offered his driver, Wardel Fenderson, $50,000 to say that the second gun -- belonging to Combs and found under a seat in the Navigator -- belonged to him.

Combs' attorneys have said the gun found on the street has nothing to do with Combs, and they deny that Combs tried to bribe Fenderson.

Combs has denied having a gun with him or firing a gun inside the nightclub that night. An attorney for Barrow admitted Monday his client fired a gun inside the club but said he was in fear of his life.

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Defense rests in Puffy Combs trial
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Defense witnesses say they did not see Combs with gun
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Prosecution witness says gun was found in Combs' vehicle
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