The last witness of the week in Johnny Depp’s defamation trial against ex-wife Amber Heard was Starling Jenkins III, an executive chauffeur and security guard for the actor.
He first testified that he witnessed them argue in person twice, while driving them. “It would be initiated by her, she would try to engage with him, he would tell me to turn the music up,” he claimed.
Much of his testimony revolved around the alleged altercation between the couple on April 21, 2016, which effectively marked the end of their relationship. Jenkins said that the next day, he was “informed by Amber that she got in a fight with Johnny” the previous night — and “threw his personal property off the balcony, into the streets.”
Of the materials supposedly tossed: his iPhone, wallet and credit cards.
Sterling said he tracked down the iPhone using the Find My Phone app, tracing it to Skid Row in Downtown Los Angeles, “about six miles” from where Depp and Heard were living. He said an “unhoused gentleman” had found it and taken it there.
“I approached him about the phone, he was honest, returned it, I gave him a reward for it,” said Sterling, revealing the reward consisted of “$420, chicken tacos, chips, apples, Fiji Water.”
After bringing the phone back to the couple’s apartment, he accompanied Heard to Coachella, where she planned to celebrate her birthday with her friends and sister. Once there, Sterling claimed the two “had a conversation pertaining to the surprise she left on bosses bed prior to leaving the apartment … the defecation.”
He added that she simply called it “a horrible practical joke gone wrong.”
In case you somehow missed it, Depp testified last week that he planned to return to their place to collect his belongings while Heard was at Coachella — but was told by one of his security guards that it wasn’t a good time to do so. “He showed me a photograph on his telephone of … it was a photograph of our bed, and on my side of the bed, was human fecal matter,” said Depp, who also claimed Heard later “blamed it on the dogs.”
Heard, however, denied any such event occurred when it was also brought up in the UK libel case. In 2020, her rep called the story “completely untrue,” adding, “As the evidence in court showed, Mr Depp discussed committing such a prank for years beforehand and it plays to his lavatorial sense of humor. Mr Depp’s team is trying to grab headlines.”
Jenkins was further asked about Heard’s behavior at Coachella, testifying that “she had no worries” and was “there to whoop it up” for her birthday. He also claimed she “got sick at the venue” after “eating magic mushrooms and drinking white wine on an empty stomach.”
Under cross examination, Heard’s lawyer pointed out that Jenkins wasn’t around for any of the incidents of abuse of which Heard has accused Depp. He also seemed to suggest it was Heard’s sister, who was pregnant at the time, who was sick at Coachella — though Jenkins said he could tell them apart.
Depp is seeking $50 million in damages after Heard claimed she was a survivor of domestic abuse in an op-ed in the Washington Post in 2018. While she didn’t name Depp in the piece, his lawyers argue it was implied to be about him and negatively affected his career. She countersued Depp for $100 million.
The actor has already lost an earlier lawsuit he took in the UK over the same article that appeared in The Sun.
The trial will resume next week in Virginia — see all of our ongoing coverage here.
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