NEW YORK — Sean "Puffy" Combs couldn't have fired a gun during a nightclub shooting because he was pinned to the floor by a hefty female bouncer, the woman told jurors in the rap mogul's weapons and bribery trial Monday.

Charise Myers

"I fell on top of Mr. Combs and other people fell on top of me," said security guard Charise Myers of the chaos that erupted during a 1999 gunfight in Manhattan's Club New York.

"Did he have a gun in his hands at any point?" defense lawyer Johnnie Cochran asked.

"No, he didn't," Myers replied.

She was the second defense witness to testify that the music executive was unarmed during the shooting, and while her account differed substantially from the previous witness, her testimony exhilarated the defense.

Cochran looked jubilant as he strode out of court in a mauve suit and an "Expect a Miracle" lapel pin. He told reporters outside the courthouse that the trial's gag order prevented him from describing his team's day in words.

"But, we can say..." he said and then finished his sentence with a toothy grin for the cameras.

His client faces 15 years in prison if convicted. Combs, 31, is accused of firing a semiautomatic handgun into the ceiling during the club fracas and then offering his chauffeur $50,000 to take the rap for the weapon. His protege, rapper Jamal "Shyne" Barrow, faces an attempted murder charge for allegedly shooting three club patrons, and bodyguard Anthony "Wolf" Jones faces bribery and weapons charges.

Myers, a black woman wearing a form-fitting olive green suit, said she spent most of her Dec. 27, 1999, shift at the club searching female patrons as they entered. But as the night grew late, she moved inside the club where a packed holiday crowd was drinking and dancing.

On her way to the restroom, she said, she saw a fight break out between Combs' entourage and a second group of clubgoers. One of them, a man other witnesses have identified as Matthew "Scar" Allen, was screaming profanity-laced threats at Combs in a "loud, forceful, intimidating" voice, Myers said.

She said she tapped Combs on the shoulder and shouted in his ear that he should follow her away from the commotion. He agreed, she said, and they turned to begin walking.

"As we were turning around to go in that direction, I saw and heard shots," she said.

Barrow pulled a gun from his waist and fired toward the ceiling, she testified. The crowd surged away from him, and "everybody in that area went down in one motion."

Combs was under her, she said, and his hands were empty.

"He looked shocked," she said.

The defense took pains to show that Myers had cooperated with investigators from the beginning. She recounted spending "like 18 hours" at the police station following the shooting. She said she answered every question, testified before the grand jury and even sought prosecutor Matthew Bogdanos' permission before giving an interview to Combs' lawyer.

On cross-examination, Bogdanos was noticeably friendly with Myers, joking with her about the spelling of her name and getting her to admit he had apologized profusely for keeping her waiting at the stationhouse.

The target of the prosecutor's questions seemed to be, not Myers, but Christopher Chambers, who testified Friday that he was standing just three feet from Combs and did not see a gun. Chambers' account was as vague as Myers' was detailed, and the prosecutor highlighted inconsistencies between their stories.

Chambers, for example, said there were no clubgoers on the floor before the shooting, but Myers said many people were on their hands and knees, scrounging for money thrown during the fight.

And although Myers said she was on the floor, covering Combs' body, Chambers did not remember any female guards in the area and said Combs simply ducked and crouched at the shots but never got on the floor.

Under questioning by Cochran, Myers said it was possible Combs could have made a ducking motion before she landed on him, but the stocky woman was skeptical of the suggestion that he could have remained crouching afterward.

As Combs, a slight man who appears even smaller in the baggy Versace suits he wears to court, looked on, she said, "I don't think he could stay on his hands and knees with me..."

"On top of him?" offered Judge Charles Solomon.

"Basically," she said.

Arhemia Fida-I

The defense got another boost Friday from the testimony of Arhemia Fida-I, a club patron who cast doubt on the account of prosecution witness Tarnisha Smith. She told jurors that she saw Combs run from the club with a gun in his hand, but on the stand, she appeared nervous and unsure of her account. Fida-I said she and Smith were standing on the other side of the bar from the fight and dove underneath the bar at the first sound of gunfire. Fida-I, who is a full foot taller than Smith in heels, said she could not see who fired the gun.