CHICAGO (AP) — R. Kelly was sentenced on Thursday to twenty years in jail for youngster pornography and enticement of minors for intercourse however will serve all however a type of concurrently with a 30-year sentence on racketeering and intercourse trafficking convictions.
U.S. District Judge Harry Leinenweber ordered that Kelly serve one 12 months in jail following the racketeering sentence, imposed final 12 months in New York.
The central query going into the sentencing in Kelly’s hometown of Chicago was whether or not Leinenweber would order the 56-year-old Grammy Award winner to serve the sentence concurrently with or solely after he completes the New York time period. The latter would have been tantamount to a life sentence.
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Prosecutors had acknowledged {that a} prolonged time period served solely after the New York sentence might have erased any probability of Kelly ever getting out of jail alive. It’s what they requested for, arguing his crimes towards youngsters and lack of regret justified it.
With Thursday’s sentence, although, Kelly will serve not more than 31 years. That means he shall be eligible for launch at round age 80, offering him some hope of in the future leaving jail alive.
Leinenweber stated on the outset of the listening to that he didn’t settle for the federal government’s competition that Kelly used worry to woo underage ladies for intercourse.
“The (government’s) whole theory of grooming, was sort of the opposite of fear of bodily harm,” the decide instructed the court docket. “It was the fear of lost love, lost affections (from Kelly)’. … It just doesn’t seem to me that it rises to the fear of bodily harm.”
Prosecutors say Kelly’s crimes towards youngsters and his lack of regret justify the stiffer sentence.
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A relaxed Kelly spoke briefly at the beginning of the listening to, when the decide requested him if he had reviewed key pre-sentencing paperwork for any inaccuracies.
“Your honour, I have gone over it with my attorney,” Kelly stated. “I’m just relying on my attorney for that.”
Two of Kelly’s accusers requested the decide to punish him harshly.
In an announcement learn aloud in court docket, a girl who testified beneath the pseudonym “Jane” stated she had misplaced her early aspirations to grow to be a singer herself and her hopes for fulfilling relationships.
“I have lost my dreams to Robert Kelly,” the assertion stated. “I will never get back what I lost to Robert Kelly. … “I have been permanently scarred by Robert.”
The lady was a key witness for prosecutors throughout Kelly’s trial; 4 of his convictions are tied to her.
“When your virginity is taken by a pedophile at 14 … your life is never your own,” Jane’s assertion learn.
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Another accuser, who used the pseudonym “Nia,” attended the listening to and addressed Kelly instantly in court docket. Speaking forcefully as her voice quivered, Nia stated Kelly would repeatedly choose at her supposed faults whereas he abused her.
“Now you are here … because there is something wrong with you,” she stated. “No longer will you be able to harm children.”
Jurors in Chicago convicted Kelly final 12 months on six of 13 counts: three counts of manufacturing youngster porn and three of enticement of minors for intercourse.
Kelly rose from poverty in Chicago to grow to be one of many world’s largest R&B stars. Known for his smash hit I Believe I Can Fly and for sex-infused songs corresponding to Bump n’ Grind, he bought tens of millions of albums even after allegations about his abuse of ladies started circulating publicly within the Nineties.
In pre-sentencing filings, prosecutors described Kelly as “a serial sexual predator” who used his fame and wealth to reel in, sexually abuse after which discard starstruck followers.
U.S. Assistant Attorney Jeannice Appenteng on Thursday urged the decide to set an extended sentence and hold Kelly in jail “for the rest of his life.”
Kelly’s abuse of kids was all the more serious, she stated, as a result of he “memorialized” his abuse by filming victims, together with Jane. She instructed the court docket Kelly “used Jane as a sex prop, a thing” for producing pornographic movies.
In pre-hearing filings, Kelly’s lawyer, Jennifer Bonjean, accused prosecutors of providing an “embellished narrative” in an try to get the decide to hitch what she known as the federal government’s “bloodthirsty campaign to make Kelly a symbol of the #MeToo movement.”
Bonjean stated Kelly has suffered sufficient, together with financially. She stated his value as soon as approached $1 billion, however that he “is now destitute.”
In court docket Thursday, Bonjean stated Kelly shall be fortunate to outlive his 30-year New York sentence alone. To give him a consecutive 25-year sentence on high of that “is overkill, it is symbolic,” she stated. “Why? Because it is R. Kelly.”
She additionally argued that Kelly’s silence shouldn’t be seen as a scarcity of regret.
She stated that whereas she suggested Kelly to not converse as a result of he continues to enchantment his convictions and will face different authorized motion, “He would like to, he would like to very much.”
© 2023 The Canadian Press