R. Kelly appears in an Illinois state courtroom in a 2019 file photo. (Image via Antonio Perez/pool via Getty Images.)
Singer Robert Sylvester Kelly, better known by his stage name R. Kelly, was convicted of three counts each of child pornography and criminal sexual abuse in his Illinois federal trial on Wednesday, according to reports. He was acquitted of other charges, including manipulating his infamous 2008 state trial.
Though a mixed victory for federal prosecutors, it reinforces Kelly’s history as a prolific sexual abuser. He was sentenced to 30 years in prison this June for racketeering, child exploitation, and other charges in a separate federal case in the Eastern District of New York. In that case, authorities mentioned five girls in charging documents.
Jane, Nia, Pauline, and Tracy testified in Illinois, according to The Associated Press. Brittany did not, which is something Kelly attorney Jennifer Bonjean highlighted during closing arguments.
She also attacked some government witnesses as liars.
It was not enough to beat back the entirety of the government’s case, however.
Jane, Nia, Pauline, and Tracy each testified that Kelly began to sexually abuse them in their mid-teens. Jane, for example, said she was the girl whose video with Kelly was at the heart of the singer’s 2008 child pornography trial. She said they began a physical relationship when she was 14 and that he plied her with alcohol, according to CBS News. She said she had sex with him hundreds of times.
Pauline said that she and Jane went to middle school together, according to the AP. Jane introduced her to the singer in 1998. They were 14. He was 30. Pauline said she once walked in on Kelly and a naked Jane at the singer’s Chicago home.
“We all have secrets,” Kelly said in her testimony, and he later added that this was “our secret.”
By her own account, her attitude toward the singer changed considerably over time. She said she had loved him at one point.
“If somebody did something to my kids, I’m killing ’em. Period,” said Pauline, who is now 37 and a mother.
Across the myriad criminal cases, authorities argued that Kelly used his wealth and fame to prey on victims.
“R. Kelly used his fame, fortune and enablers to prey on the young, the vulnerable and the voiceless for his own sexual gratification, while many turned a blind eye,” Eastern District of New York U.S. Attorney Breon Peace wrote in a statement. “Through his actions, Kelly exhibited a callous disregard for the devastation his crimes had on his victims and has shown no remorse for his conduct. With today’s sentence he has finally and appropriately been held accountable for his decades of abuse, exploitation and degradation of teenagers and other vulnerable young people.”
A backup singer for Kelly testifying under the pseudonym “Angela” reportedly testified during his trial that R. Kelly had sex with her in his apartment in 1991 — back when she was 14 or 15, according to BuzzFeed. “Angela” also told a jury that she walked in on Kelly performing oral sex on Aaliyah Dana Haughton, known as the “Princess of R&B.” Aaliyah would have been 13 at the time.
Adam Klasfeld contributed reporting.
[Image via Antonio Perez – Pool via Getty Images]