Watch Live: Amber Heard’s lawyer focuses on Johnny Depp’s texts: “Let’s burn

Attorneys for actor Amber Heard sought to undermine Johnny Depp’s libel lawsuit against her Thursday by spending hours in court focused on the actor’s drinking, drug use and texts he sent to friends — including one about wanting to kill and defile his then-wife.

Heard’s lawyers referenced Depp’s history of trashing hotel rooms and his smashing of a bathroom sconce during an argument with Heard. Depp is also facing a lawsuit filed by a member of a film crew who alleges he was assaulted in 2018.

The attorneys are trying to derail Depp’s libel lawsuit against Heard that alleges that she falsely portrayed him as a domestic abuser and ruined his lucrative acting career. They argue that Depp did indeed abuse Heard, both physically and sexually, and claim that Depp can’t deny it because he was often drunk and high on drugs to the point of blacking out.

“I, of course, pounded and displayed ugly colors to Amber on a recent journey,” Depp said in a text message to a friend, the actor Paul Bettany, in July 2013, which was shown to jurors.

“I am an insane person and not so fair headed after too much of the drink,” Depp continued. “Weed, pills … Fine!!! Booze??? My capacity is too large and I won’t stop … Ugly and sad … Oh, how I love it.”

Heard lawyer J. Benjamin Rottenborn also focused on another exchange that year between Depp and Bettany in which Depp wrote: “Let’s burn Amber!!!”

Bettany responded: “Having thought it through I don’t think we should burn Amber.”

Depp texted: “Let’s drown her before we burn her!!! I will (expletive) her burnt corpse afterwards to make sure she’s dead.”

Depp has previously apologized to the jury for the vulgar language in the texts and said that “in the heat of the pain I was feeling, I went to dark places.”

Rottenborn also showed the jury one of Depp’s texts to Bettany in 2014 in which he referenced whiskey, pills and cocaine.

The texts were sent during a period in which Depp said he had stopped drinking. And they were sent around the time of a private flight from Boston to Los Angeles, during which Heard had said that Depp became blackout intoxicated and assaulted her.

Rottenborn presented texts that Depp sent to Bettany that said he drank “all night before I picked Amber up to fly to LA this past Sunday … Ugly, mate … No food for days … Powders … Half a bottle of Whiskey, a thousand red bull and vodkas, pills, 2 bottles of Champers on plane …”

Depp had previously testified that he took two oxycodone pills — an opiate to which he admits he was addicted at the time — and locked himself in the plane bathroom and fell asleep to avoid her badgering. He also disputes that he was drunk on the flight, saying he drank only a glass of champagne as he boarded the plane.

But Rottenborn also showed the jury Depp’s expressions of contrition following the flight.

“Once again I find myself in a place of shame and regret,” Depp wrote to Heard. “Of course, I am…