A federal jury in Chicago on Wednesday convicted R. Kelly of producing child pornography and luring girls for sex after a month-long trial in his hometown, dealing another legal blow to a singer who was one of biggest R&B stars in the world.
Prosecutors won convictions on six counts against him, many of which carry lengthy mandatory sentences. But the government lost count: Kelly and his then-business manager successfully rigged his state child pornography trial in 2008.
After deliberating for 11 hours over two days, jurors convicted Kelly of three counts each of producing child pornography and seduction, while acquitting him of obstruction of justice, one count of producing child pornography and three counts of receiving pornography infantile
His two co-defendants, including longtime business manager Derrel McDavid, who had told jurors that testimony from four of Kelly’s accusers had changed his mind about Kelly’s credibility, were acquitted of all the charges
The trial was, in some ways, a repeat of the 2008 trial, with a key video central to both. Kelly, who wept with joy when jurors acquitted him in 2008, waved to onlookers after Wednesday’s verdict but otherwise showed little emotion. Before Kelly returned to federal lockup, McDavid embraced the Grammy Award-winning singer, who rose from poverty on Chicago’s South Side to become a superstar.
The verdict comes after a federal judge in New York sentenced Kelly to 30 years in prison in June for extortion and sex trafficking. Under that sentence, the 55-year-old won’t be eligible for release until he’s in his 80s.
2 more tests to come
Kelly still faces two sexual misconduct trials: one in Minnesota and one in state court in Chicago.
Prosecutors in the Illinois federal trial portrayed Kelly as a master manipulator who used his fame and wealth to lure fans, some of them minors, to sexually abuse and then discard them.
Kelly, born Robert Sylvester Kelly, was desperate to retrieve pornographic videos he made and carried around in a gym bag, witnesses said. They said he offered up to US$1 million to recover the missing videos before the 2008 trial, knowing they would put him in legal jeopardy. The conspiracy to cover up his abuse lasted from 2000 to 2020, prosecutors said.
Among the charges McDavid was acquitted of was conspiring with Kelly to tamper with the trial in 2008. Milton Brown, Kelly’s other co-defendant and partner for years, was acquitted of receiving child pornography.
Just one case of child pornography carries a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years. A judge could order Kelly to serve a new sentence concurrently or only after the first term has been fully served. Federal prisoners must serve at least 85 percent of their sentences.
During closing arguments, Kelly’s attorney, Jennifer Bonjean, compared the government’s testimony and evidence to a cockroach and her case to a bowl of soup.
If a cockroach lands in the soup, he said, “Don’t just take the cockroach out and eat the rest of the soup. Throw the whole soup away,” Bonjean told jurors.
“There are too many cockroaches,” he said of the prosecution’s case.
The three defendants called only a handful of witnesses over four days, including McDavid.
In her final rebuttal, prosecutor Jeannice Appenteng cited testimony that Kelly’s inner circle became increasingly focused on doing what Kelly wanted as her fame grew in the mid-1990s.
“And ladies and gentlemen, what R. Kelly wanted was to have sex with young girls,” he said.
Four of Kelly’s accusers testified. Some cried when they described the abuse, but otherwise spoke calmly and confidently. A fifth accuser did not testify.