DEDHAM, Mass. (Court TV) — The trial for NFL star Stefon Diggs began on Tuesday with prosecutors and defense attorneys painting two very different pictures of what happened on Dec. 2, 2025.
Stefon Diggs listens to opening statements on May 4, 2026. (Court TV)
Diggs, 33, is charged with felony strangulation or suffocation and misdemeanor assault and battery for an alleged attack on a woman who was working for him as a private chef at the time. Diggs has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Prosecutor Drew Virtue laid out the Commonwealth’s case against the former Patriots wide receiver on Monday, telling the jury that the alleged victim, Jamila Adams, had been arguing with Diggs via text before he “entered her bedroom, walked up to her and slapped her.” Virtue said that Diggs put Adams in a headlock and threw her on the bed before leaving.
But Diggs’ attorney, Andrew Kettlewell, told the jury a very different story in his opening statement. “It never happened. It did not happen. There was no strangulation. There was no assault. There was no incident on December 2 or any other day,” he said.
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Kettlewell said that on the night of the alleged assault, everyone in Diggs’ residence was preparing to fly south to Miami to celebrate the athlete’s birthday. Everyone was planning to attend — except Adams. “That morning, Ms. Adams was not happy,” Kettlewell said. “Instead, she was quietly seething about being left off that trip to Miami.” The decision to leave Adams off the guest list was made, Kettlewell said, after she began “feuding” with one of Diggs’ business partners.
Diggs has accused Adams of trying to get money from him; Kettlewell said that after police filed a criminal complaint in the case, Adams began asking him for amounts upwards of $19,000.
Adams was the first witness called to the stand. She testified that she has worked as a private chef for 13 years and first met the defendant through social media in Dec. 2022, when he asked her to cook for him.
Jamila Adams testifies in Stefon Diggs’ trial on May 4, 2026. (Court TV)
On the day of the alleged incident, Adams said she had been arguing with Diggs via text when he came into her room — she lived in his home — while she was reading a cookbook on her bed. “He comes in, he looks very angry. He was upset from the text exchange we were having,” Adams said in court. “In that text exchange, he was calling me a b— and he was just very upset. He came in with the intent to hurt me.”
Adams said that Diggs called her over, and when she began to speak, he smacked her face with an open hand. Adams said she tried to block him, but “he took his arm and he came around my neck with the crook of his elbow around my neck and he began to choke me.” Adams said she couldn’t breathe as Diggs’ arm got “tighter and tighter.” She claimed she tried a defensive move, but that Diggs just responded, “That s— you see on Instagram is not gonna work.”
Diggs allegedly slammed her onto the bed before walking out of her room. “I looked down at my pants,” Adams said. “I had peed my pants, and I had just come off my cycle and I was bleeding really bad again, I guess cause I was so scared.”
Adams said after that, she packed her clothes and left for New York City with a ticket paid for by Diggs. But before leaving the home the next day for her flight, she admits she stopped to give her boss a birthday gift. She also admitted she returned to the home and her job after a week off.
Diggs, who had six consecutive 1,000-yard receiving seasons with Minnesota and Buffalo from 2018-2023, signed with New England in 2025 for a three-year, $69 million deal; the team released him in March 2026 after the Patriots lost to the Seattle Seahawks in Super Bowl LX.
