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Depp penthouse employee ‘saw marks on Heard after Elon Musk overnight stay’

The front desk supervisor at Johnny Depp’s Los Angeles penthouse building has told the High Court in London that she saw marks on Amber Heard’s body after Tesla founder Elon Musk had apparently spent the night there.

Trinity Esparza said she saw “no visible injuries whatsoever to Ms Heard’s face” three days after Mr Depp, now 57, allegedly hit his ex-wife, 34, in the face with her own mobile phone on May 21 2016.

She said the first time she saw any marks on Ms Heard’s face that week was on May 27, the day the Aquaman actress appeared in court to obtain a restraining order against Mr Depp, which “disturbed” Ms Esparza.

She also said that the following week, another resident in the building found a gift card – which she said fell out of a large plant sent to the building for Ms Heard – which read: “I had a wonderful weekend with you. E.”

Elon Musk
Elon Musk (Brian Lawless/PA)

Ms Esparza said in her witness statement that she saw “a number of marks on Ms Heard’s body” – including bruises on her neck, plasters on her arm and a mark below her left eye – on a day in June or July 2016, shortly after Mr Musk had left the building looking “like he had just woken up with messy hair”.

The witness was giving evidence by videolink from California on Monday in Mr Depp’s trial against The Sun newspaper over an April 2018 article which labelled him a “wife beater”.

Ms Esparza, who owns the company that provided concierge services at the Eastern Columbia building where Mr Depp owned five apartments, said she had worked as the front desk supervisor for around six years and “frequently saw and interacted with Ms Heard in person” for more than a year.

In her statement, she said she “saw and interacted with Ms Heard on May 23, May 24 and May 25 with a clear and unmarked face”.

Sasha Wass QC, representing The Sun’s publisher News Group Newspapers, said to Ms Esparza: “Isn’t it more accurate to say you saw her earlier in the week and you didn’t notice it?”

Ms Esparza replied: “That is not accurate, I saw her very clearly.”

She said she was not on duty on May 21, when Mr Depp is alleged to have arrived at the penthouse “drunk and high” then became “enraged” and threw Ms Heard’s mobile phone at her “like someone throwing a baseball”.

Johnny Depp
Johnny Depp (Victoria Jones/PA)

Ms Esparza said she saw Ms Heard on May 23 when she was walking through the lobby.

She said in her statement: “I looked her right in the face as we said hello and I saw no visible injuries whatsoever to Ms Heard’s face.”

Ms Esparza said she had “another encounter with Ms Heard in close proximity” on May 24 and “once again, I did not see any visible injuries to her face”.

She added she saw Ms Heard again the next day and “did not see any bruises, cuts, swelling, red marks or any other injuries of any kind to Ms Heard’s face or body”.

Ms Esparza said she next saw Ms Heard on May 27, walking towards her “with a sad look on her face”.

The witness said: “Now, for the first time that week, she had a red mark underneath her eye.

“Either later that day or the following morning, I saw media reports that Ms Heard had obtained a restraining order against Mr Depp for domestic abuse stemming from the May 21 alleged incident.

“After seeing the news reports, Ms Heard’s battered face and domestic abuse allegations, I was disturbed.”

Actress Amber Heard arrives at the High Court in London
Actress Amber Heard arrives at the High Court in London (Aaron Chown/PA)

She said she knew “Mr Depp left on May 21 and had not yet returned”.

Ms Esparza said she decided to review CCTV footage from the previous few days and “that is when I realised with certainty that the story in the media did not add up”.

She said she “came across a video that made me even more sceptical of Ms Heard’s allegations” – footage from May 24 of Ms Heard’s sister Whitney Henriquez apparently throwing “a fake punch into the visibly unmarked face of Ms Heard”, before the pair and their friends “all threw their heads back in laughter”.

Ms Wass said: “I suggest that there was no fake punch in the way that you have described.”

Ms Esparza replied: “There was a fake punch.”

Describing the incident when Mr Musk is suggested to have stayed at the apartment, Ms Esparza said: “On that late June or early July morning, Elon Musk came down from the only elevator that goes to the penthouses and asked me to fob him to the garage.

“It was around 9am in the morning and he looked like he had just woken up with messy hair.”

She added that she did not recognise Mr Musk, but was told who he was by a resident who described him as his “hero”.

Ms Esparaza claimed Alejandro Romero, one of the concierges at the building, told her he had observed Mr Musk visiting Ms Heard “many times … for more than a year at that point”.

She added that Ms Heard came down later that day, saying she had lost her keys.

Ms Esparza said: “When we were standing next to each other, I could see a number of marks on Ms Heard’s body.

“She had three small round bruises on the left hand side of her neck and two Band-Aids on her arm. Ms Heard also had a faint mark on her left cheek, below her eye.”