Jurors began deliberations Thursday in a trial over former reality television star Blac Chyna’s lawsuit against Kim Kardashian, Kris Jenner, Khloé Kardashian, and Kylie Jenner, whom she alleges spread false stories of abuse to ruin her television career.
In her closing argument, Chyna’s attorney Lynne Ciani argued that it was unreasonable for the four women to have believed that her client violently attacked her former fiancé Rob Kardashian.
“Forget who they are; forget about how famous they are,” Ciani told the jury. “Was it reasonable for the defendants to believe that their son or brother’s version of the events that he had been brutally attacked?”
In emotional and often angry testimony, Rob Kardashian said during the trial that he feared for his life on the night of Dec. 14 and the morning of Dec. 15, 2016, when Chyna twice pointed a gun at his head, pulled a phone-charging cable around his neck and repeatedly hit him with a metal rod while under the influence of alcohol and cocaine.
He testified that the violence left no visible injuries, nor did he report the attack to anyone, and his mother and sisters said the same when each took the stand.
“He didn’t have a mark on him,” Ciani said. “There was no call to the police, no trip to the hospital, not even a Band-Aid.”
Chyna is suing the four women for defamation and interference with contract, alleging they sought to get the couple’s “Keeping Up With the Kardashians” spinoff “Rob & Chyna,” canceled before its second season.
Kardashian attorney David G. Rhodes argued during his closing that the women had every reason to believe the accounts of the attack from Rob Kardashian and from Kris Jenner’s longtime boyfriend Corey Gamble, who arrived at the scene, broke up the dispute, and was a key defense witness.
“Do you remember how Rob looked on the stand yesterday? His pain was real,” Rhodes said. “This is a real family. Yeah, they’re famous, but they’re real people. He got really badly hurt here.”