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Not guilty: Jury acquits Stefon Diggs on strangulation, assault charges

Colleen Cronin, Boston Herald on

Published in Football

DEDHAM, Mass. — A jury found ex-Patriots wide receiver Stefon Diggs not guilty of assault and battery and strangulation after hearing two days of testimony in his trial regarding an alleged incident at his home last December.

The jury delivered its verdict after just a few hours of deliberation Tuesday.

During the second day of testimony, Diggs’ defense attorneys tried to discredit Jamila Adams, his former personal chef and accuser.

The former Patriot was charged at the end of last year with assault and battery and strangulation in connection with an alleged incident that took place Dec. 2.

Adams testified that Diggs hit and strangled her at his Dedham home while she was working as a live-in chef after she got upset with him for not bringing her on a trip to Miami with the rest of his entourage.

But Tuesday, people who interacted with Adams immediately after the alleged incident said that she was acting normal, did not have any visible injuries, and did not talk about being assaulted.

Xia Charles, a hair stylist for Diggs, said that she spent the week with Adams after Dec. 2 in New York.

“We girls,” said Charles, describing their relationship.

The stylist continued that the two had visited Charles’ home and family in Trinidad and Tobago and were FaceTiming the night of the alleged incident with Diggs.

On FaceTime and during the visit, Charles said she didn’t see any redness around her neck or face, tears, or flush. Instead, the women spent the trip in New York hanging out, drinking, watching movies, and making funny videos.

The defense showed one of these videos and dash camera footage from Charles’s care which appeared to show Adams without visible injury.

When Charles visited Dedham later in December to braid Diggs' hair, she said that Adams told her she planned to sue Diggs for back pay and a hostile work environment.

According to Charles, Adams said she would “take it to the blogs,” as in the gossip blogs.

Adams denied this on the stand.

Charles also said that while she was braiding Diggs’ hair, Adams asked Diggs about when she was going to get paid, to which he asked if Adams had spoken to his accountant.

 

Adams' “demeanor changed” after the question, Charles said. “She was trying to antagonize him.” The last phrase was objected to and struck from the record.

Diggs' bookkeeper Melissa Goddard also testified that Adams had been overpaid by more than $2,500 while working for Diggs during the 2025 football season.

Both the prosecution and defense had rested their cases by Tuesday afternoon, then gave their closing arguments

“There was no assault … at all, on that day or any other day,” Diggs’ attorney Andrew Kettlewell said. “The Commonwealth’s case is nothing more than the words of Miss Adams.”

He talked about how testimony from a Dedham police officer at times contradicted Adams’ story about what happened Dec. 2, and how Adams’ behavior and appearance after the alleged incident was inconsistent with a violent assault.

Adams “might define bruising as what is expedient or convenient to her,” Kettlewell said, “but we all know what bruising looks like.”

Diggs’ attorney also told the jury to take into consideration Adams’ demeanor on the stand, asking them, “How much would you bet on the words of Jamila Adams?” Adams had to be reminded several times to only answer the question she was asked, and at one point Tuesday, the judge told her that her entire testimony might be struck if she didn’t cooperate.

Kettlewell also drew attention to how Adams described the assault. She said on the stand that Diggs hit her on the right side of her face with his right hand, which Kettlewell called impossible.

“Sometimes actors forget their scripts,” he said.

Assistant District Attorney Drew Virtue’s closing arguments were much shorter.

“Was Miss Adams a perfect witness?” he asked the jury. No, he conceded, calling her “difficult” and “argumentative.”

But that is not a reason to completely discount her testimony, he said. Her inconsistent behavior, in Virtue’s explanation, was because of Adams and Diggs’ complicated relationship: he was “sometimes lover, a boss, a landlord, an athlete, a celebrity, financially powerful,” the prosecutor said.

Virtue asked that the jury to take their time with the evidence, and that if they did, they would come back with guilty verdicts on both counts.

Following the closing arguments, the judge gave jury instructions and they began their deliberations.


©2026 The Boston Herald. Visit at bostonherald.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

 

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