NEW YORK – Breakout R&B star R. Kelly faces the possibility of a quarter-century or more in prison when he is sentenced Wednesday in a federal sex-trafficking case in New York.
THE TRIAL AGAINST R. KELLY
A jury found Kelly, 55, guilty of extortion and other charges last year in a trial that was seen as a key moment in the #MeToo movement.
Outrage over Kelly’s sexual misconduct with young women and minors was fueled in part by the widely watched documentary series “Surviving R. Kelly,” which gave voice to accusers who wondered if their stories were previously ignored because they were African-American women. .
US District Judge Ann Donnelly will impose the sentence in federal court in Brooklyn after hearing testimony from the victims and possibly from Kelly himself.
THE CONVICTION SEEKING THE PROSECUTION
Prosecutors are seeking a minimum term of 25 years, while the defense says a sentence of 10 years or less is all he deserves.
Kelly’s lawyers argued in court papers that the singer should be given a chance in part because he “experienced a traumatic childhood that involved prolonged and severe childhood sexual abuse, poverty and violence.”
They added: “His victimization continued into adulthood where, due to his literacy deficiencies, the defendant has been repeatedly financially defrauded and abused, often by the people he paid to protect him.”
The jury convicted the “I Believe I Can Fly” hitmaker after hearing how he used his entourage of managers and assistants to meet girls and keep them obedient, an operation prosecutors said amounted to a criminal enterprise.
Several accusers testified that Kelly subjected them to perverse and sadistic whims when they were minors.
Kelly, whose birth name is Robert Sylvester Kelly, used his “fame, money and popularity” to “systematically prey on children and young women for his own sexual gratification,” prosecutors wrote in their own filing earlier this month.
The accusers alleged that they were ordered to sign confidentiality forms and subjected to threats and punishment, including violent whipping, if they broke what were called “Rob’s rules”.
Some said they believed the videotapes he recorded of them having sex would be used against them if they exposed what was happening.
There were testimonies that Kelly gave various accusers herpes without disclosing that he had an STD, forced a teenage boy to join him in having sex with a naked girl who emerged from under a boxing ring in his garage, and recorded a embarrassing video of a victim showing her with feces on her face as punishment for breaking her rules.
Evidence was also presented about a fraudulent marriage scheme hatched to protect Kelly after he feared he impregnated R&B phenom Aaliyah in 1994 when she was just 15 years old. Witnesses said she married sports sweats using a license that falsely listed her age as 18; Kelly was 27 years old at the time.
THE ROMANCE BETWEEN R. KELLY AND AALIYAH
Aaliyah worked with Kelly, who wrote and produced her 1994 debut album Age Ain’t Nothing But A Number. She died in a plane crash in 2001 at age 22.
An earlier defense memo suggested that prosecutors’ arguments for a higher sentence were overstepped by falsely claiming that Kelly participated in paying a government official a bribe to facilitate the illegal marriage.
Kelly’s attorneys also said it was incorrect to claim he should get more time because he sexually abused one of his victims, referred to in court as “Jane,” after her parents innocently entrusted him to help her with her musical career.
“The record shows that Jane’s parents ordered her to lie to the defendant about her age and then encouraged her to seduce him,” the documents say.
PENDING ACCOUNTS OF R. KELLY
Kelly has been jailed without bail since 2019. He still faces child pornography and obstruction of justice charges in Chicago, where his trial is scheduled to begin Aug. 15.
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