LAS VEGAS — Trial resumes at 9 a.m. (PST) today in the state of Nevada’s criminal case against War Machine, who stands accused of 34 felony counts, including sexual assault, attempted murder and battery in the August 2014 beating of former adult star Christy Mack and her friend, Corey Thomas.
The trial, being streamed live by LawNewz.com, is now in its fifth day.
In the attack, Mack sustained a broken nose, a blowout fracture to her eye, broken ribs, two broken teeth, a lacerated liver and bruises. Thomas was punched and choked by War Machine, a former martial-arts fighter.
Yesterday — Day 4 — began with the prosecution wrapping up its questioning of key witness Mack, War Machine’s former girlfriend, who testified that she could not defend herself when War Machine was beating her.
“There’s no way I could physically overpower him,” she said. “And if I were to fight back it would be 10 times worse.”
In closing questions, Mack delivered a teary-eyed, emotional delivery to jurors answering a question on why she stepped forward to help prosecutors in the case.
“Once I became involved with the domestic violence community, they really helped me understand that what was happening to me was not a healthy relationship,” Mack told jurors.
“They really just helped me understand the gravity of the situation and how I could turn my situation into something so helpful for other women that if I decided to stay strong and I decided to testify and really stand up for this that it could help so many other women.”
The case moved to cross-examination by War Machine’s defense team, which tried to attacked her credibility and questioned her about her tattoos, clothing and use of social media.
War Machine attorney Jay Leiderman noted that Mack’s social media pages saw a spike after she posted photos online of her bumps and bruises.
In response to his line of questioning, Mack remarked: “I would not want to almost die for a few followers.”
Mack has more than 756,000 followers on Twitter and more than 2.7 million followers on Instagram.
Leiderman also quizzed Mack about a racy photo and accompanying text messages sent to War Machine, and also discussed her sources of income through an emoji app and a Fleshlight mold deal, as well as her sources of funding for medical and dental expenses.
Mack said that medical and dental expenses incurred by the beating were donated and that a crowdfunding page netted a little more than $100,000. But Mack said she donated that money to charity.
Pictured: Christy Mack on the witness stand on Thursday.
