R Kelly will serve a further one yr in jail on expenses referring to indecent photos of youngsters and youngster enticement after finishing his 30-year racketeering sentence, a federal choose has dominated.
The disgraced R&B singer, whose full identify is Robert Sylvester Kelly, was handed a 20-year jail time period on Thursday, however he’ll serve practically the entire sentence concurrently alongside the sentence he acquired in 2022.
Following a high-profile trial in New York in 2021, he was discovered responsible of racketeering and trafficking, which got here after years of accusations all through his profession.
This further sentence means Kelly will serve not more than 31 years. He will likely be eligible for launch at round age 80.
The central query going into the sentencing in Kelly’s hometown of Chicago, US, was whether or not District Judge Harry Leinenweber would order the 56-year-old to serve the extra sentence concurrently with or solely after he completes 30 years.
The latter would have been equal to a life sentence.
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Prosecutors had acknowledged that lengthening his sentence would have erased any likelihood of Kelly getting out of jail alive, however argued that his crimes in opposition to kids and lack of regret justified it.
Two of Kelly’s accusers additionally requested the choose to punish him harshly.
In an announcement learn aloud in courtroom, a girl who testified underneath the pseudonym “Jane” stated she had misplaced her early aspirations to develop into a singer herself and her hopes for fulfilling relationships.
Kelly rose from poverty to develop into one of many world’s greatest R&B stars. He grew to become recognized for chart-topping hits together with I Believe I Can Fly, Bump ‘N’ Grind and Ignition.
Although abuse allegations started circulating within the Nineteen Nineties, widespread outrage adopted the #MeToo reckoning and the 2019 collection Surviving R Kelly.
Source: information.sky.com”