The ongoing P. Diddy trial has people talking about courtroom sketch art. Although I’m not one of the artists sketching the Diddy case, CNN reached out to me and a couple of other established court artists to do a phone interview for an article on courtroom sketching. Then over the next two days I had four(!) radio stations call me to record interviews. They all asked about why we have sketch artists and what it’s like to do drawings in court.

Here’s the CNN article in which I am quoted:

Courtroom sketches of the Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs trial are drawing quite a reaction

My first radio interview was with the nationally syndicated Anna & Raven Show. They called me up and edited my ramblings into a short segment. I made the newbie mistake of talking too fast but otherwise it was fun. Listen here.

I also did an interview with Logan and Sadie in the Morning on 96.9 WINK-FM (Fort Myers, FL). I don’t have a link to the other two interviews, but that’s OK because this was probably my best one. I actually talked at a normal speed:

Dogukan Gunaydin is a Turkish citizen who was attending the University of Minnesota’s graduate program at the Carlson School of Management. In June 2023 he pleaded guilty to a DWI. In March 2025 he was detained by ICE and his visa was revoked because of the DWI. His case drew significant media attention and sparked protests on the University of Minnesota campus.

On April 11, 2025 I sketched a brief hearing for Gunaydin’s case in immigration court. When I arrived there was a massive line of maybe a hundred or more college students waiting to go through security in hopes of attending the hearing. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a line that big for a court case. The judge did not allow digital devices in the courtroom so instead of my iPad I had to draw the old fashioned way on paper. Gunaydin appeared via closed circuit TV from the jail where he remained in custody. The hearing was short so I only had time for one sketch, which I had to finish it in a conference room after the hearing ended.

The judge ruled that Gunaydin will remain in custody while ICE works on formalizing the charges against him.

In March 2025 Minnesota state senator Justin Eichorn was caught in a sting operation and charged with soliciting a minor for prostitution. On March 20 there was a brief hearing after his arrest. He was released to a halfway house with GPS monitoring and is awaiting trial. I only had time for one quick sketch.

Feeding Our Future was a nonprofit accused of the largest Covid fraud in the nation. They allegedly stole about a half a billion dollars from the Minnesota government under the guise of feeding school children. Dozens of people were charged as part of the conspiracy.

The first trial was held in Spring of 2024 with seven defendants. The second trial had only two defendants: Aimee Bock, the Executive Director of Feeding Our Future, and Said Salim, the owner of Safari Restaurant. Bock was the “mastermind” charged with wire fraud, conspiracy and bribery. Said took part in the scheme by fraudulently collecting money while claiming to serve 3.9 million meals to children during covid.

If my memory serves, the trial lasted about six weeks. Ultimately Bock and Said were both found guilty on all charges.

I was only present for a few select days of the trial, but here are some of the sketches I did:

On March 31, 2023 Madeline Kingsbury went missing from her home in Winona, Minnesota. She had recently separated from her ex-boyfriend Adam Fravel, who was the father of their two young children. Despite multiple searches with hundreds of volunteers, her body was not discovered for four months. It was eventually found in a culvert near Fravel’s parents home.

Fravel’s trial lasted about two weeks during October-November 2024. Witnesses testified that Fravel allegedly had threatened Kingsbury, struck her, and once attempted to strangle her in front of her children. However, after she went missing there was no sign of struggle in the home.

A jury found Fravel guilty on all counts. He was sentenced to life in prison.

I attended opening arguments, closing arguments, and three days of testimony. Here are a few of the sketches:

Feeding Our Future was a nonprofit accused of the largest Covid fraud in the nation. They allegedly stole about a half a billion dollars from the Minnesota government under the guise of feeding school children. Dozens of people were charged as part of the conspiracy.

The first trial was held in Spring of 2024 with seven defendants. Each defendant had their own attorney, so it was a packed courtroom with a lot of people to draw. Here’s a sampling of the sketches I did:

During jury deliberations at least one juror was let go after allegedly being offered a bribe. Ultimately the jury convicted five of the seven defendants.

Perry Stein, a writer for the Washington Post, reached out to me with a question from a reader: “Who hires courtroom sketch artists? How many attend trials?” I emailed back an answer and they used it in a Q&A blurb at the end of a recent article about the Trump trials.

I have not drawn Trump in court (yet), though I did sketch the arraignment of Trump associate Waltine Nauta in the confidential documents case. (The arraignment lasted about five minutes so I only did one sketch). The primary artists for the current New York Trump trials are Jane Rosenberg and Elizabeth Williams. But the Washington Post reached out to me via email with their question.

You can read the answer here (scroll down to the bottom).

Thanks to Minneapolis news station WCCO-TV for interviewing me for a segment on courtroom sketching. Here it is, if anyone wants to hear me babble or see what my studio looks like.

WCCO’s website doesn’t make it easy to share/repost videos so I’m not sure if the video embed will play. If not, here is the direct link to watch: https://www.cbsnews.com/minnesota/news/what-does-it-take-to-be-a-courtroom-sketch-artist/

Anton “Tony” Lazzaro was a wealthy political donor found guilty of seven counts of sex trafficking with five minors between the ages of 15 and 16. Lazarro had paid a female friend to recruit underage girls for him to party and have sex with. In return he showered the girls with money and gifts. The government said that since he was paying money for underage sex, it qualifies as sex trafficking. The defense argued that it was not sex trafficking because the sex was consensual and the money and gifts were not connected to the sex.

View my sketches of the trial here.

A jury found Lazarro guilty on all counts. He was sentenced in Minneapolis on August 9 2023 to 21 years in prison.

Waltine Nauta, while serving in the Navy, became President Trump’s valet in the White House. After Trump left office Nauta continued working for Trump at Mar-a-Lago. It is alleged that Nauta, following orders from his boss, moved boxes containing classified information from a storage room at Mar-a-Lago to Trump’s residence; that Nauta assisted Trump in concealing the documents from a grand jury, the FBI, and Trump’s own lawyers; that Nauta took a photo of spilled contents from one of the boxes with classified markings clearly labelled, and then texted the photo to a co-worker proving he knew the contents were classified; and that Nauta then lied to FBI investigators by falsely claiming that he was not aware of the boxes being moved.

On July 6 Nauta was arraigned in Miami, Florida. He pled not guilty.

This was a bit of a challenge to draw. Arraignments are often brief but this was one of the briefest I have ever seen, lasting maybe five minutes total. The court would not allow anyone to use an electronic device in the courtroom which meant no iPad. I had to draw on paper, which I haven’t done in years. And I was experimenting a bit by using pastels instead of colored pencils which I have favored in the past. I definitely felt a little rusty. After I got back home I purchased some new and improved art supplies so I can brush up on my traditional media technique.