On his final day on the stand
in his $50 million defamation trial against ex-wife, Amber Heard, Johnny
Depp told the court “the only person that I have ever abused in my life is
myself.”
After a three-day break in
which the court was dark, the seven-person jury listened to a series of audio
recordings — often chaotic and difficult to decipher — that included a Depp
prediction that Heard “will hit the wall hard,” a phrase that also appeared in
a text message written by the actor that was introduced to the court.
“You heard Ms. Heard say, ‘Get
off me,” right?” Heard attorney Ben Rottenborn asked Depp.
“No, I didn’t. I heard
screaming and ‘I’ll talk to you later, I’ll talk to you later,’” Depp replied.
At another point, Depp said
Heard made “grossly exaggerated” statements.
With the six-week trial about
a third of the way over, Depp appeared to be shaken in the first hour as
Rottenborn presented him repeatedly with damaging text messages that painted a
picture of a movie star who abused drugs and alcohol and was bent on revenge.
One text message written by
Depp read: “She’s begging for total global humiliation. She’s gonna get it.
… I have no mercy, no fear, and not an ounce of emotion or what I once
thought was love for this gold-digging, low level, dime a dozen, mushy,
pointless dangling overused flappy fish market … I can only hope that karma
kicks in and takes the gift of breath from her … Sorry man … But NOW I
will stop at nothing!!!”
