Singer R. Kelly, found guilty of setting up a system of sexual exploitation, was sentenced to thirty years in prison.
Posted at 3:34 p.m.
The 55-year-old man, Robert Sylvester Kelly by his name, has been in prison since the summer of 2019. He was found guilty and sentenced for racketeering and transporting people into the territory of the United States for the purpose of prostitution. He still faces charges of child pornography and obstruction of justice in Chicago, as well as other charges in the states of Illinois and Minnesota.
Some 45 people, including a dozen victims, testified in his trial in New York. He was found guilty of nine counts against him in New York court last September. He had since been awaiting his sentence.
The influential figure in music in the 1990s and 2000s suffered a six-week trial during which it was revealed that he asked his employees to attract admirers and aspiring singers to him. So he kidnapped, controlled and abused his victims, including locking them in rooms without food or access to toilets for days.
Faced with the danger he would pose to the public and the apparent lack of remorse, federal prosecutors had asked for a sentence of more than 25 years. His lawyer, Jennifer Bonjean (who also represented Bill Cosby), wanted a maximum ten-year sentence, given what she described as “hypersexuality” resulting from the abuse he himself allegedly suffered in the ‘childhood.
R. Kelly is now expected to be transferred to Chicago for another trial beginning in August.