CHICAGO — R. Kelly was sentenced on Thursday to twenty years in jail for baby pornography and enticement of minors for intercourse however will serve all however a kind of concurrently with a separate 30-year sentence on racketeering and intercourse trafficking convictions.
The sentence means Kelly may depart jail alive, when he’s about 80. Prosecutors had requested Judge Harry Leinenweber to condemn the 56-year-old Grammy Award winner to 25 years and have him begin serving them solely after he accomplished his earlier sentence. That would have been tantamount to sending him to jail for all times.
They argued that the stiffer punishment was justified by the seriousness of the crimes and what they mentioned was Kelly’s lack of regret.
Kelly remained nonetheless and emotionless, his eyes downcast, when the choose issued his sentence in a Chicago federal courtroom. His composure slipped barely, nonetheless, when a consultant learn a press release written by “Jane,” a key prosecution witness.
“I was brainwashed by Robert and a sex slave,” Jane’s assertion mentioned. “It almost killed me.”
Kelly’s lawyer, Jennifer Bonjean, mentioned she was happy with the choose’s resolution.
“It’s the right outcome,” she informed reporters following the listening to. “The judge was reasonable. He, I think, took into account both sides and ultimately was fair.”
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 ladies for intercourse.
“The (government’s) whole theory of grooming, was sort of the opposite of fear of bodily harm,” the choose informed the courtroom. “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.”
Leinenweber ordered that Kelly serve one 12 months in jail following the racketeering sentence, imposed final 12 months in New York.
A peaceful Kelly spoke solely briefly initially of the listening to, when the choose requested him if he had reviewed key presentencing paperwork for any inaccuracies.
“Your honor, 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 choose to punish him harshly.
In a press release learn aloud in courtroom, Jane mentioned she had misplaced her early aspirations to develop 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 girl 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 instantly in courtroom. Speaking forcefully as her voice quivered, Nia mentioned Kelly would repeatedly decide 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 of manufacturing baby porn and three of enticement of minors for intercourse. Prosecutors didn’t get a conviction on the marquee cost: that Kelly and his then-business supervisor efficiently rigged his state baby pornography trial in 2008.
Kelly rose from poverty in Chicago to develop 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 offered thousands and thousands of albums even after allegations about his abuse of women started circulating publicly within the Nineties.
In presentencing filings, prosecutors described Kelly as “a serial sexual predator” who used his fame and wealth to reel in, sexually abuse after which discard star-struck followers.
U.S. Assistant Attorney Jeannice Appenteng on Thursday urged the choose to maintain 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 informed the courtroom Kelly “used Jane as a sex prop, a thing” for producing pornographic movies.
In prehearing filings, nonetheless, Bonjean accused prosecutors of providing an “embellished narrative” to get the choose to hitch 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 price as soon as approached $1 billion, however that he “is now destitute.”
She additionally remarked that Kelly might 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.”
And she confused that Kelly’s silence within the courtroom shouldn’t be seen as a scarcity of regret.
She mentioned Kelly “very much” wished to talk however she suggested him to not as a result of he continues to attraction his convictions and will face different authorized motion.
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Source: www.bostonherald.com”