R Kelly convicted on multiple counts but acquitted

A federal jury found R Kelly guilty of several child pornography and sexual abuse charges in his hometown of Chicago.

Kelly, 55, was convicted of three counts of child pornography and three counts of procuring a child.

But a jury acquitted him of a fourth count of pornography and one count of conspiracy to obstruct justice, which charged him with fixing his state child pornography trial in 2008.

He was acquitted of three counts of conspiracy to receive child pornography and two other charges of solicitation.

His two co-defendants were acquitted on all charges.

Jurors deliberated for 11 hours over two days and wrote several questions to the judge Wednesday, at least one of which indicated panelists were grappling with some of the legal complexities of the case.

They were asked if they had to find the minors that Kelly both seduced and coerced, or that he either seduced or coerced them. Despite the objections of Kelly’s lawyers, the judge said they just needed to find one.

During the trial, prosecutors sought to paint Kelly as a master manipulation master who used his fame and wealth to lure star fans, some of whom were minors, to sexual abuse and then dumped them.

Witnesses said Kelly, whose real name was Robert Sylvester Kelly, was desperate to retrieve the child pornography videos he made and carried in his gym bag. They said he offered up to $1 million to restore the lost video before his 2008 trial, knowing it would put him in legal danger. Prosecutors say the plot to cover up his abuse lasted from 2000 to 2020.

Kelly’s colleagues Derrel McDavid and Milton Brown are co-defendants in the Chicago trial. Jurors have acquitted Mr. McDavey, longtime Kelly’s business manager, of conspiring with Kelly to rig the 2008 trial. Mr Brown, Kelly’s longtime colleague, was acquitted of receiving child pornography.

Kelly has been convicted of racketeering and sex trafficking in New York and sentenced to 30 years in prison.

In Chicago, the mandatory minimum sentence for just one child pornography conviction is 10 years, and the mandatory minimum sentence for receiving child pornography is 5 years.

Judges can order defendants who were sentenced earlier in different cases to serve their sentences while their first term has been fully served or only after a new term has been served. Federal prisoners must serve at least 85 percent of their sentences.

During Tuesday’s closing argument, Kelly’s attorney Jennifer Bonjang likened the government’s testimony and evidence to a cockroach and its case to a bowl of soup.

If a roach fell into the soup, she said, “you can’t just pull the roach out and eat the rest of the soup. You throw the whole soup away,” she told jurors.

“There are too many cockroaches,” she said of the prosecution’s case.

The three defendants called only a handful of witnesses in four days. Co-defendant Mr McDavey, who was in the stands for three days, said he now doubts Kelly’s authenticity when he denies abusing anyone after hearing the superstar’s accusers testify Hope of acquittal.

In her final rebuttal, prosecutor Janice Appenten cited testimony that Kelly’s inner circle was increasingly focused on doing what Kelly wanted as his reputation flourished in the mid-1990s.

“Ladies and gentlemen, what R Kelly wants is sex with young girls,” she said.

Four Kelly plaintiffs testified, all mentioned by pseudonyms or first names: Jane, Nia, Pauline and Tracy. Some cried when describing the abuse, but in others spoke calmly and confidently. A fifth plaintiff, Brittany, did not testify.

Kelly, sitting nearby, in a suit and face shield, often averted his eyes and looked down as his accusers spoke.

More than a dozen hardcore Kelly fans regularly attend the trial. During the break, at least once, several people made a heart gesture at Kelly. He smiled back.

Jane, 37, was a star witness for the government and key to the convicted charges that Kelly used threats and paybacks to get her to lie to a grand jury ahead of her 2008 trial and ensure she and her parents would not testify.

State prosecutors said a video of Kelly abusing a girl of about 14 was the focus of the trial.

In late August, after two days on the witness stand, Jane said publicly for the first time that the girl in the video was her 14-year-old and the man was Kelly, about 30.

Some jurors at the 2008 trial said they had to acquit Kelly because the girl in the video did not testify. At the federal trial in Chicago, Jane said she lied to a state grand jury in 2002 when she said it wasn’t her in the video, saying she lied in part because she cared about Kelly and didn’t want him to get into trouble.

Jane told jurors she was 15 when they first had sex. When asked how many times they had sex before she was 18, she replied calmly: “Countless.  … Hundreds.”

Jane, who belongs to a teen singing group, first met Kelly in junior high school in the late 1990s. She toured Kelly’s recording studio in Chicago with her professional singer aunt. Shortly after that meeting, Jane told her parents Kelly would be her godfather.

Jane testified that when her parents confronted Kelly in the early 2000s, he knelt down and begged their forgiveness. She said she begged her parents not to take action against Kelly because she loved him.

Defense attorneys say the thirst for money and fame has driven some government witnesses to charge Kelly, who they accuse several people of trying to blackmail him. They also suggested that at least one of the accusers was 17 — the age of consent in Illinois — when Kelly began pursuing her sexually.

Ms Bonjean implored jurors not to accept the prosecution’s description of her client as a “monster”, saying Kelly was forced to rely on others due to intellectual challenges and that he sometimes went astray.

“Mr Kelly could also be a victim,” she said in her opening remarks.