R. Kelly sentenced to 20 years for child sex crimes, but avoids lengthy jail add-on – National | 24CA News

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 kind 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.

Prosecutors had acknowledged {that a} prolonged time period served solely after the New York sentence may have erased any probability of Kelly ever getting out of jail alive. It’s what they requested for, arguing his crimes towards kids and lack of regret justified it.

With Thursday’s sentence, although, Kelly will serve not more than 31 years. That means he will likely be eligible for launch at round age 80, offering him some hope of in the future leaving jail alive.

Leinenweber mentioned 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 women for intercourse.

“The (government’s) whole theory of grooming, was sort of the opposite of fear of bodily harm,” the decide advised 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 kids and his lack of regret justify the stiffer sentence.

A peaceful Kelly spoke briefly initially 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 mentioned. “I’m just relying on my attorney for that.”

Two of Kelly’s accusers requested the decide to punish him harshly.

In a press release learn aloud in court docket, a lady who testified beneath the pseudonym “Jane” mentioned she had misplaced her early aspirations to turn into a singer herself and her hopes for fulfilling relationships.

“I have lost my dreams to Robert Kelly,” the assertion mentioned. “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.

Another accuser, who used the pseudonym “Nia,” attended the listening to and addressed Kelly straight in court docket. Speaking forcefully as her voice quivered, Nia mentioned Kelly would repeatedly choose at her supposed faults whereas he abused her.

“Now you are here … because there is something wrong with you,” she mentioned. “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 turn into one of many world’s greatest R&B stars. Known for his smash hit I Believe I Can Fly and for sex-infused songs reminiscent of Bump n’ Grind, he bought thousands and thousands of albums even after allegations about his abuse of women started circulating publicly within the Nineteen 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 preserve Kelly in jail “for the rest of his life.”

Kelly’s abuse of youngsters was all the more serious, she mentioned, as a result of he “memorialized” his abuse by filming victims, together with Jane. She advised the court docket Kelly “used Jane as a sex prop, a thing” for producing pornographic movies.

5:40R. Kelly discovered responsible of kid pornography, intercourse abuse in Chicago trial

Previous Video

Next Video

In pre-hearing filings, Kelly’s lawyer, Jennifer Bonjean, accused prosecutors of providing an “embellished narrative” in an try and get the decide to affix what she referred to as the federal government’s “bloodthirsty campaign to make Kelly a symbol of the #MeToo movement.”

Bonjean mentioned Kelly has suffered sufficient, together with financially. She mentioned his value as soon as approached $1 billion, however that he “is now destitute.”

In court docket Thursday, Bonjean mentioned Kelly will likely 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 mentioned. “Why? Because it is R. Kelly.”

She additionally argued that Kelly’s silence shouldn’t be seen as an absence of regret.

She mentioned 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.”

&copy 2023 The Canadian Press