R. Kelly (born Robert Sylvester Kelly) was convicted Wednesday of producing child pornography and enticing girls for sex after a month long trial in his hometown of Chicago. Prosecutors won convictions on six of the 13 counts against him, with many carrying long mandatory sentences. However, the government failed to convict Kelly on the marquee count, contending that Kelly and his then-business manager successfully rigged his state child pornography trial in 2008. Both co-defendants, including longtime business manager Derrel McDavid — who had told jurors that testimony from four Kelly accusers had led him to change his mind about Kelly’s believability — were acquitted. The verdict comes months after a federal judge in New York sentenced Kelly to 30 years in prison for racketeering and sex trafficking. Based on that sentence, the 55-year-old won’t be eligible for release until he is around 80. Two sexual misconduct trials still await Kelly in Minnesota and Chicago. After deliberating for 11 hours, jurors convicted Kelly of three counts each of producing child pornography and enticement, while acquitting him of obstruction of justice, one count of production of child porn and three counts of receiving child porn, Associated Press reports.
Judge Harry Leinenweber could order that Kelly serve whatever sentence he imposes simultaneously with the New York sentence or only after that one is fully served. The latter would mean a life sentence. Prosecutors portrayed Kelly as a master manipulator who used his fame and wealth to reel in star-struck fans to sexually abuse and then discard them. Defense attorneys suggested a desire for money and fame drove some witnesses to accuse Kelly, and several people of tried to blackmail him. All four Kelly accusers who testified went by pseudonyms or their first names: Jane, Nia, Pauline and Tracy. Four of his six convictions were tied directly to Jane. Jane, 37, said for the first time at the just-ended trial that the girl in a video cited by prosecutors was her at age 14 and that the man was Kelly, who was around 30. Asked how many times Kelly had sexually abused her before she turned 18, Jane answered quietly: “Uncountable times. … Hundreds.”
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