NEW YORK — Kid Cudi took the witness stand at Sean “Diddy” Combs’ Manhattan sex trafficking trial Thursday, telling a jury about how his Hollywood Hills home was burgled and his Porsche was torched in his driveway after the hip-hop mogul learned he was dating Casandra “Cassie” Ventura.

On the stand in Manhattan federal court, the “Day ‘n’ Nite” rapper, whose real name is Scott Mescudi, described receiving a late-night call in December 2011 from a worried Ventura, “very scared, sounded like she was on the verge of tears,” saying that Combs had found out they were dating and had his address.

Mescudi told prosecutor Emily Johnson that after picking Ventura up and driving her to a safe location, he called Combs’ assistant, Capricorn Clark, who sounded distraught and said she was outside Mescudi’s house — and that Combs and one of his associates were inside.

“I called Sean Combs,” Mescudi recalled. “I (will) be very candid. I said, ‘Uh, motherf—r, you in my house?’ And he’s like, ‘Wassup?’”

Mescudi, 41, said Combs told him he’d meet him at his home and “just wanted to talk.” But when he arrived, Combs was not there, and he discovered his security cameras had been repositioned at different angles, Christmas gifts had been opened, and his“jittery” dog was locked in the bathroom.

Combs told Mescudi by phone he would come and meet him, but Mescudi decided against it. He instead called the cops, telling the court, “I thought about the reality of the situation, not knowing what I was walking myself into, so I decided to call the police.”

In the ensuing weeks, Mescudi said he had some text communication with Combs, and Ventura went home to Connecticut, where Mescudi visited.

Not long after, one morning in January 2012, Mescudi’s frantic dog-sitter called him at 6:30 a.m. about his Porsche blowing up in front of his house. When he got home, the burnt-out car appeared to have been targeted with a Molotov cocktail, Mescudi said.

“It looks like the top of my Porsche was cut open, and that’s where the Molotov cocktail was put in,” he said as jurors were shown a photo.

Mescudi testified that Ventura, whom he’d known since 2008, had confided in him around Thanksgiving 2010 that she and Combs were having issues. Last week, Ventura testified that by 2011, she was being subjected to regular physical abuse by Combs, and he was coercing her into disturbing sexual encounters with strangers that he dubbed “freak-offs.”

She said Combs looked through her phone and found out she was talking to Mescudi, causing him to fly off the handle and take “a wine bottle opener between his fingers” and lunge at her.

Ventura said when she later met with an “irate” Combs after the incident, he threatened to release videos he had taken of her in the humiliating sexual encounters with strangers and “to hurt Scott and I,” a threat she said she warned Mescudi about by calling him on a burner phone. She said Combs assaulted her as she left his place, causing severe bruising on her back that her mother photographed when she got to Connecticut for the holiday.

The jury has seen evidence of Ventura chronicling Combs’ threats against her and Mescudi in an email to Clark, his assistant, and her mother, noting he “actually said he’d be out of the country when it happened.”

After the car incident, Mescudi said Thursday he met with Ventura and Combs to talk at a Los Angeles hotel. He said Combs, looking out a window with his hands behind his back, looked like a “Marvel supervillain” and wanted a full rundown about their fling. He said Combs feigned confusion when confronted about his car and acted eerily relaxed in a way that was “off-putting.”

“What are we going to do about my car?” Mescudi recalled asking Combs, only to be met with “a very cold stare.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he quoted Combs telling him, later adding he didn’t trust that was correct.

The Grammy Award-winning rapper, who walked into the lower Manhattan courthouse puffing on a cigarette, said Combs would offer a half-apology years later when they ran into each other at a 2015 event, saying sorry for “all that bulls—t.”

Mescudi said his and Ventura’s courtship fizzled out quickly after the chilling sequence of events, as he was concerned about his safety. He said he was sad to see the relationship end and her go back to Combs. On cross-examination, he told defense attorney Brian Steel that Ventura told him about suffering physical abuse under Combs but not sexual abuse. Steel also asked if he was aware that DNA recovered at the scene of the car fire belonged to a woman, which he said he was not.

Combs, 55, appeared unperturbed by the potentially explosive account. He was seen yawning during Mescudi’s testimony and laughing with his lawyers on a short break. He has pleaded not guilty to a five-count indictment, including counts of sex trafficking, racketeering conspiracy, and transporting individuals for prostitution, which carries a potential life sentence.

The feds have accused Combs of compulsively coercing women into depraved sexual performances with male escorts with help from a well-compensated network of high-ranking employees, akin to a mob, who resorted to sex trafficking, forced labor, kidnapping, arson, bribery, and obstruction of justice to facilitate his every desire.

The jury has heard from several former Combs staffers. After Mescudi, Mylah Morale, a staffer of Combs in the early 2000s and later Ventura’s makeup artist, corroborated details Ventura shared last week about being beaten by Combs after he saw her turn up to a party at Prince’s house with her friends and not him.

Earlier Thursday, one of Combs’ former assistants, George Kaplan, finished testifying under an immunity deal. Kaplan acknowledged seeing Ventura injured during his time working for Combs from 2013 to late 2015. He said he witnessed a violent incident involving the couple on a private jet not long before he quit, recalling hearing glass shattering and an incredulous Ventura yelling out to ask if anyone was witnessing what was happening.

Kaplan said he didn’t consider reporting the apparent assault because doing so would have been misaligned with “what I was trying to accomplish” in his career. He said he parted ways with Combs in late 2015 because he found “the physical behavior that had been going on” discomfiting.

Combs’ decades-long reign in the hip-hop and entertainment industry came to a screeching halt in November 2023 when Ventura brought a bombshell lawsuit alleging he’d subjected her to horrific abuse over their 11-year relationship — and was behind Mescudi’s car being blown up — and the feds began probing him.

Combs settled the case in just 24 hours for $20 million and has since been sued by more than 70 people for a range of misconduct that he denies.

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