|
Listen to this article here
|
On Wednesday, singer R. Kelly has been found guilty on federal child pornography charges by a Chicago jury.
The disgraced musician, Robert Sylvester Kelly, 55, was convicted on six of the 13 federal counts brought against him related to child pornography. Kelly was convicted on three of four counts of production of child pornography and three of five counts of enticement of a minor to engage in criminal sexual activity.
Kelly was acquitted on one count each of conspiracy to obstruct justice and conspiracy to receive child pornography as well as two counts of receiving child pornography.
Nearly three months after a 30-year prison sentence in New York on charges of federal racketeering and sex trafficking, R. Kelly was found guilty by a jury made up of four White women, three Black women, three white men, and two Black men. The jury deliberated for 10 hours after listening to three weeks of testimony, including from a woman who testified anonymously that Kelly sexually abused her and recorded the interactions when she was 14-years-old.
“It had to be the way R. Kelly wanted,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeannice Appenteng said Tuesday during the prosecution’s rebuttal argument. “And, ladies and gentlemen, what R. Kelly wanted was to have sex with young girls.”
The federal conviction came 14 years after a Chicago jury acquitted Kelly in a state trial on charges of child pornography. That case stemmed from a VHS tape showing Kelly engaging in sex acts with “Jane,” his 14-year-old goddaughter.
Kelly still faces two other pending criminal cases, one in Cook County in Chicago, and another in Minnesota. His sentencing date for the latest conviction has not been set yet.
According to the United States Sentencing Commission, people convicted of federal child pornography charges received an average sentence of 23 years in prison in 2019.