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BELTON, TEXASA man in small-town Texas is facing life in prison for allegedly killing a police officer. But the trialwhich commenced Monday after a nearly decade-long waitis a confluence of police use of force, the war on drugs, and the right to self-defense. Its outcome will in part answer the following question: How far does a self-defense claim go when it’s exercised against the state?

At around 5:45 a.m. on May 9, 2014, a SWAT team in Killeen, Texasconsisting of about two dozen officersdescended on Marvin Guy’s modest apartment on Circle M Drive. They were there to execute a no-knock drug raid, a controversial approach that allows law enforcement to forcibly enter a residence, usually with a fabulous display of force, without first announcing themselves. An informant had reportedly told police that Guy was dealing cocaine.

The raid did not go as planned.

Officers smashed Guy’s bedroom window and attempted to breach the door with a battering ram. But something appeared to be lodged behind the door, preventing police from immediately gaining entry and leaving them clogged outside the residence. In the rapidly unfolding mayhem, Guy fired several shots outside of his broken window, allegedly hitting four officers. Police quickly fired over 40 rounds in return. One officer, Detective Charles Dinwiddie, died.

Guy was arrested and ultimately charged with one count of capital murder and three counts of attempted capital murder. But he says he believed the police to be intruders when he was awoken and disoriented early that morning. Witnesses for the prosecution yesterday described the neighborhood as one that was known for its high crime rate. Less than a week before the raid, someone broke into Guy’s neighbor’s residence across the street in similar fashion, forcing entry via a first-floor window and choking a female resident nearly to death.

A series of protracted delaysstemming from the COVID-19 pandemic, Guy’s declining health, disputes over the district attorney’s office releasing all the evidence, and a slew of defense attorneys either quitting or being firedhave lengthened Guy’s stay at the county jail, where he has been held for almost a decade on $4 million bond. For years, the state sought the death penalty, which also slowed trial preparations, as proceedings with the ultimate punishment on the table take more time. Prosecutors withdrew that last year, instead opting to pursue life in prison, to speed the process.

The case is not the first to pit self-defense against no-knock raids. The tactic has come under intense scrutiny in recent years. In 2020, Breonna Taylor was killed by police during a similar raid after her boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, grabbed a firearm he legally owned and fired one shot at police, believing them to be intruders. (Police claim they announced themselves before breaking down Walker’s door; Walker says he didn’t hear them.) Charges against him were ultimately dismissed. In 2021, a Florida man went to trial facing three counts of first-degree attempted murder of a law enforcement officer after he shot at deputies during a 2017 drug raid targeting his father. The government also charged the defendant, Andrew Coffee IV, with murdering his girlfriend, Alteria Woods, who was shot and killed by police, as prosecutors posited that Woods died as a result of Coffee’s actions. A jury acquitted him of those charges.

The topic is particularly relevant in Guy’s case, as Texas has the Castle Doctrine, a legal principle grounded in the eponymous idea that someone’s home is their castle. As such, they have no duty to retreat when they believe they’re facing a deadly threat. An exception: It does not apply when the person in question is engaged in illegal activity. The Killeen Police Department (KPD) allegedly found traces of white powder in Guy’s car, on the floor of his apartment, and in the trash, amounting to 1 gram of “suspected cocaine.” He was not charged with a drug crime.

But even if the jury decides Guy is not entitled to protection via the Castle Doctrine, they could still find he acted in self-defense. The state, however, has a radically different theory: At trial yesterday, Bell County Assistant District Attorney Fred Burns laid the groundwork for the notion that the problems cascading from the raid weren’t a result of Guy not having enough information. On the contraryit’s because he knew too much, Burns said.

That theory began to take shape during the testimony of David Daniels, a retired SWAT officer with KPD who was hit by a bullet during the raid. In this telling, Guy had barricaded the door to his apartment not because he was afraid of intruders but because he knew SWAT was coming and plotted to kill the police when they arrived. “We were ambushed,” Daniels said. It was not yet clear how the state would prove Guy’s clairvoyance about the department’s plans.

The subject of no-knock raids has been a fraught one for KPD. The city recently reached a settlement with the family of a man who was killed during a 2019 raid. In 2021, the local council voted to ban the tactic. Unfortunately, that came too late here.

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Politicians send messages of support to Joe Biden after cancer diagnosis

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Politicians send messages of support to Joe Biden after cancer diagnosis

Politicians have sent messages of support to Joe Biden, who has been diagnosed with prostate cancer.

The 82-year-old, who is the oldest person to ever serve as US president, was described as a “fighter” with people wishing him a “fast and full recovery”.

US President Donald Trump said he was “saddened” by the news, adding: “We extend our warmest and best wishes to Jill and the family, and we wish Joe a fast and successful recovery.”

Former US president Barack Obama said: “Michelle and I are thinking of the entire Biden family.

“Nobody has done more to find breakthrough treatments for cancer in all its forms than Joe, and I am certain he will fight this challenge with his trademark resolve and grace. We pray for a fast and full recovery.”

Read more: Biden diagnosed with ‘aggressive’ form of prostate cancer

U.S. President Joe Biden and former President Barack Obama attend a campaign event for Democratic U.S. senatorial candidate John Fetterman and Democratic nominee for Pennsylvania governor Josh Shapiro in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. November 5, 2022. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY
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Barack Obama (right) with Joe Biden at a campaign event in 2022. File pic: Reuters

British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said he was “very sorry to hear President Biden has prostate cancer”.

“All the very best to Joe, his wife Jill and their family, and wishing the President swift and successful treatment,” he added.

After a poor debate performance against Mr Trump and amid escalating concerns for his health, Mr Biden withdrew from the 2024 election and endorsed his vice president Kamala Harris.

Ms Harris wrote on X: “We are keeping him, Dr. Biden, and their entire family in our hearts and prayers during this time.

“Joe is a fighter – and I know he will face this challenge with the same strength, resilience, and optimism that have always defined his life and leadership. We are hopeful for a full and speedy recovery.”

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Mr Biden’s diagnosis: What we know

Former US president Bill Clinton wrote on social media: “My friend Joe Biden’s always been a fighter. Hillary and I are rooting for him and are keeping him, Jill, and the entire family in our thoughts.”

Hillary Clinton, who unsuccessfully ran for president in 2016, said she was “thinking of the Bidens as they take on cancer, a disease they’ve done so much to try to spare other families from”.

Speaker of the US House Of Representatives Mike Johnson said it was “sad news” and his family “will be joining the countless others who are praying” for Mr Biden.

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Former House speaker Nancy Pelosi described Mr Biden as a “great American patriot” and said she was “praying for him to have strength and a swift recovery”.

Mr Trump’s secretary of state, Marco Rubio, wrote on social media he and his wife were “united in prayer for the Biden Family during this difficult time”.

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Was Trump’s Middle East trip an ‘unbridled success’?

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Was Trump's Middle East trip an 'unbridled success'?

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Following President Trump’s Middle East trip – which the White House is touting as an unbridled success – Sky News’ Martha Kelner sits down with Barbara Leaf, who was US ambassador to the United Arab Emirates during Trump’s first term and assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs in the Biden administration.

She was also in the team that formed the first formal US presence in Syria after more than a decade.

On this episode, Martha and Barbara discuss the significance of Mr Trump’s Middle East visit, including his meeting with the Syrian President Ahmed al Sharaa, drawing from Barbara’s own meeting with the former jihadist.

Plus, former president Joe Biden has been diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer. Martha shares Mr Trump’s response to the news.

If you’ve got a question you’d like the Trump100 team to answer, you can email it to trump100@sky.uk.

Don’t forget, you can also watch all episodes on our YouTube channel.

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Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs: What it was like to follow ‘the Pied Piper of partying’

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Sean 'Diddy' Combs: What it was like to follow 'the Pied Piper of partying'

In 1990s and early 2000s New York, Sean “Diddy” Combs was the person to be seen with. 

Now on trial in Manhattan, his hair grey, his beard grown, it’s hard to imagine that he was “the Pied Piper… of the most elite level of partying of that time” – but that’s how Amy DuBois Barnett describes him.

She was the first Black-American woman to run a major mainstream magazine in the US, and based in Manhattan at a time when hip hop was at its zenith.

“Urban culture really ran the city,” she says. “That’s where so much of the money was… you had all the finance bros trying to get into Puffy (Combs) parties, all the fashion executives trying to get into Puffy parties.”

And while he was welcomed by the highest echelons of the arts and entertainment world, she says: “He was never known for being a calm kind of individual.”

FILE - Sean 'P.' Diddy' Combs arrives at the annual Independence Day 'White Party' at the PlayStation 2 Estate in Bridgehampton, New York, July 4, 2004. (AP Photo/Jennifer Szymaszek, File)
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Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs in New York in July 2004. Pic: AP

Combs was “very dismissive” with her, and she admits: “Puff never particularly liked me that much.”

But DuBois Barnett would often get invited to his parties because she was able to feature his up-and-coming artists in her magazines.

From editor-in-chief of Ebony magazine, she’d go on to become the editor-in-chief of Honey and Teen People magazines, and then deputy editor of Harper’s Bazaar.

She says the man she met at those parties “lacked warmth” and seemed “complicated”.

Amy DuBois Barnett
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Amy DuBois Barnett

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“When he walked in the room, all of the energy changed. Puffy had his trusted individuals around him… immediately the area around him would become kind of crowded with everybody vying for his attention,” she says.

“I think that was also partially why he didn’t particularly like me because I wasn’t really vying for his attention.

“He really reserved that attention for the people that he was either attracted to… or the people that he thought were important enough to his business success.”

Amy DuBois Barnett at an event for Ebony magazine
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Amy DuBois Barnett (right) with publisher Desiree Rogers at an event for Ebony magazine

She says it was common knowledge that he wasn’t someone to cross due to “rumours… of what he could do”.

“There were a lot of people within journalism, within media, within other industries that were afraid of his influence and also afraid of his temper,” she adds.

“When things at parties would not go his way or somebody didn’t bring him something quickly enough, or… the conversation wasn’t going his way… he would just kind of snap and he was just not afraid to yell at whoever was there.

“There was not a lot of boundaries in his communication, let’s just put it that way.”

Diddy on the red carpet at the height of his success
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Combs on the red carpet at the height of his success

But she says it was a time when a tremendous amount of misogyny was running throughout music, things that in today’s culture would certainly give pause for thought.

“So many things happened to me, everything from getting groped at parties to getting locked in a limousine with music executives and having him refuse to let me out until I did whatever he thought I was going to do, which I didn’t.”

She insists: “We didn’t have the vocabulary to understand the degree to which it was problematic… it was a thread that ran throughout the culture.”

Diddy getting off a private jet during his heyday
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Getting off a private jet during his heyday

Star-studded parties were the ultimate invite

At the time, a ticket to one of Combs’s star-studded “white parties” was the ultimate invite.

She admits: “It was like nothing you’ve ever seen before… the dress code was very strict.

“No beige, no ecru, absolutely white, you would literally be turned away if your outfit was wrong. Puffy did not sort of tolerate people in his parties that didn’t look ‘grown and sexy’ as it were.”

She says people would mingle by the poolside listening to the best DJs in the world, while topless models posed dressed as mermaids and waiters handed out weed brownies from silver platters.

“It was every boldface name you could possibly imagine, just this gorgeous crowd.”

At an event with model Naomi Campbell
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At an event with model Naomi Campbell

Behind the glamour, prosecutors now allege there was a man capable of sexual abuse and violence, and a serious abuse of power. Criminal charges which he’s already pleaded not guilty to and strenuously denies.

Without question, Combs had the golden touch. Expanding his music career into business enterprises that in 2022 reportedly took his net worth to around £1bn. For decades his success story was celebrated.

“I think that in the black community, there is a feeling that if a black man is successful you don’t want to bring him down because there are not that many… these are cultural forces that are rooted in the systemic racism that’s present in the United States… but I think that these were part of what potentially protected Puffy against people speaking out.”

Couple became ‘isolated and very unhappy’

While Combs had amassed a small fortune over the course of two decades which she encountered him, the former magazine editor says his behaviour had markedly changed from the first party she went to, to her last.

“The last was a post-Grammys party, in 2017 or 2018, and just the vibe was very different. He was really kind of isolated in a corner with Cassie, you know, looking very unhappy.”

Diddy and Cassie together on the red carpet
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Diddy and Cassie together on the red carpet

For around 10 years, Combs had a relationship with the singer Cassie Ventura which ended in 2018.

Once over she filed a lawsuit that both parties eventually settled alleging she was trafficked, raped, drugged and beaten by the rapper on many occasions – which he denied. Last week she made similar claims in court.

Casandra "Cassie" Ventura cries on the stand during redirect during Sean "Diddy" Combs' sex trafficking trial in New York City, New York, U.S., May 16, 2025 in this courtroom sketch. REUTERS/Jane Rosenberg
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A court sketch of Cassie giving evidence against Combs in court this week. Pic: Reuters

Sean "Diddy" Combs listens as his former girlfriend Casandra "Cassie" Ventura (not seen) testifies as a video from a hotel is played at his sex trafficking trial in New York City, New York, U.S., May 14, 2025 in this courtroom sketch. REUTERS/Jane Rosenberg
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A court sketch of Combs listening to evidence from his former partner Cassie. Pic: Reuters

“Cassie looked very glassy-eyed and there was a sadness about her energy. Whatever was happening between the two of them, I mean, it didn’t feel positive,” says DuBois Barnett.

“They were sort of holed up in the corner for almost the entire night… it did feel very different from the kind of jubilant of energy that he projected in his earlier incarnations.”

For Combs, his freedom depends on how these next few weeks go. His representatives claim he is the victim of “a reckless media circus”, saying he categorically denies he sexually abused anyone and wants to prove his innocence.

In particular, they say, he looks forward to establishing the “truth… based on evidence, not speculation”.

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