NEW YORK — He was supposed to be an exclamation point on the prosecution's case against Sean "Puffy" Combs, but the Brooklyn felon who instigated a nightclub fight with the rap mogul may turn out to be more of an asterisk.

Matthew "Scar" Allen, hyped by the prosecution just two weeks ago as a crucial witness who would accuse Combs of shooting a gun during the 1999 argument and later trying to buy his silence, will not testify in the weapons possession and bribery trial after all.

Under a deal struck behind closed doors Monday, however, jurors will have a chance to review a statement Allen gave to the prosecution in January in which he claims Combs fired a weapon.

Lawyers on both sides emerged from a private meeting with Judge Charles Solomon smiling, but declined to explain the deal, citing the trial's gag order.

Combs, 31, the head of Bad Boy Entertainment, and his co-defendants, bodyguard Anthony "Wolf" Jones and rapper Jamal "Shyne" Barrow, were not in court for the announcement. With a blizzard bearing down on the city, the jury and the defendants left court early after an abbreviated session in which Barrow's defense called two witnesses and then rested its case. The prosecution will begin calling rebuttal witnesses Wednesday.

Combs, facing 15 years in prison, is accused of brandishing a gun during a fracas between his entourage, which included then-girlfriend Jennifer Lopez, Barrow and Jones, and another group of patrons, including Allen. He is also accused of offering his chauffeur $50,000 to take the rap. Combs strenuously denied the charges when he testified last week, saying he did not know Allen and was a confused bystander on the periphery of the argument.

In the handwritten statement jurors will read, Allen tells a different story. He contends he and Combs had met each other "many times" and were just arms-length apart exchanging profanities during the fight.

What the statement does not contain are prosecution allegations that Combs offered Allen, his brothers and mother money to keep quiet about the club shooting. The jury will apparently not hear charges that Combs approached Allen in a nightclub and offered him a bribe.

The statement's impact also may be tempered by words from the judge. Solomon, under the deal, will tell jurors that the defense was not present when Allen gave the statement and never had a chance to cross-examine him. The judge will also inform the panel that Allen was jailed on unrelated charges at the time he talked to the prosecutor and did not have his own lawyer in the room.

Allen, previously convicted of gun possession, was facing weapons and domestic violence charges when he spoke to prosecutors. Soon after, he fled the city and was a fugitive for several weeks before being captured in Maryland. He is being held on a $1 million material witness bond.

Jones

Before the backroom dealing began, jurors heard a second clubgoer testify that someone other than Combs and Barrow fired a gun during the altercation. Tavon Terrance Jones, a professional photographer, told jurors that a dark-skinned black man with braids fired the first shot.

"Was Mr. Barrow the man you saw with the gun in the air?" Barrow's lawyer, Ian Niles, asked.

"No, sir," Jones replied. He added that he had seen the gunman 45 minutes earlier in the restroom. The gunman and two associates were "angry and upset," he said.

Outside the presence of the jury, Niles said Jones was prepared to testify that the men in the restroom were plotting to "melt" Combs' "cheddar" — slang for robbery. Solomon ruled the conversation was hearsay and inadmissible.

Jones, a 34-year-old Philadelphian, had jurors giggling as he recalled the unusual circumstances by which he gained entrance to the popular, velvet-roped disco's "Hot Chocolate" party — described by one witness as "the hottest Sunday night in the city."

"I got mistaken for someone else. They thought I was some model who frequents the club," he explained. Jones stared down at his lap as he admitted that, even inside the club, he kept up the charade as he flirted with a young woman.

"She thought I was somebody and I was trying to play it off," he said.

Barrow's defense also called a ballistics expert, who said he believed the gunshot victim Natania Reuben was struck in the face by a ricochet, not a direct shot. Barrow's defense team seems to be pushing a two-theory defense, asking jurors to find that the bullets that struck the victim either came from someone else's weapon or, if they came from Barrow's gun, were ricochets off the ceiling at which he was aiming.

Haase

Prosecutor Matthew Bogdanos subjected expert Charles Haase, a retired police detective, to a withering cross-examination, severely shaking his testimony. Haase admitted he only reviewed X-rays and other evidence in the hallway moments before taking the stand. He also conceded that he never knew that doctors found eight fragments in Reuben's head, not just the one they removed. And finally, Haase backed off his previous defense testimony, saying he couldn't "say whether the bullet in the X-rays are ricochets."

"It might be, it might not be?" Bogdanos asked.

"That's correct," Haase said.

Also Monday, Solomon said he was leaning against the prosecutor's request that the jury visit the club. The judge said he would make his final ruling Wednesday morning.