R. Kelly was convicted on multiple counts, acquitted of rigging the trial

On Wednesday, a federal jury acquitted R. Kelly of multiple counts of child pornography and sexual assault in his hometown of Chicago, dealing another legal blow to the singer, who was once one of the biggest R&B stars in the world.

Kelly, 55, was found guilty of three counts of child pornography and three counts of child deception.

But a jury acquitted him of a fourth pornography charge, as well as an obstruction of justice charge in a state child pornography trial in 2008.

His two co-defendants were found not guilty on all counts.

Jurors, who deliberated for 11 hours over two days, wrote several questions to the judge on Wednesday, at least one indicating that panelists were dealing with some of the legal complexities of the case.

One questioned whether Kelly should have tricked and coerced minors, or seduced or coerced. Despite Kelly’s attorney’s objections, the judge said they just need to find one.

At trial, prosecutors tried to paint Kelly as a master manipulator who used his fame and fortune to sexually assault star-studded fans, some of them minors, before discarding them.

Kelly, whose birth name is Robert Sylvester Kelly, was desperate to retrieve videos of child pornography he made and carried in his gym bag, witnesses said. They said he offered up to $1 million to recover the lost videos before the 2008 trial, knowing they would put him in legal jeopardy. The conspiracy to cover up his abuse lasted from 2000 to 2020, prosecutors said.

Kelly’s associates, Darrell McDavid and Milton Brown, were co-defendants in the Chicago trial. A jury acquitted McDavid, Kelly’s business manager, who was accused of conspiring with Kelly to rig a 2008 trial. Brown, a former associate of Kelly’s, was acquitted of child pornography.

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

In Chicago, a conviction for a single count of child pornography carries a mandatory minimum of 10 years in prison, and receiving child pornography carries a mandatory minimum of five years. Judges can order defendants previously convicted in individual cases to serve new sentences at the same time or only after the first term has been fully served. Federal prisoners must serve at least 85% of their sentences.

During closing arguments on Tuesday, Kelly’s attorney, Jennifer Bongin, likened the government’s testimony and evidence to a cockroach and her case to a bowl of soup.

If a cockroach fell into the soup, he would say, “No, just push the cockroach out and eat the rest of the soup. You spilled all the soup,” the jury was told.

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

The three defendants called only a few witnesses over the four days. Co-defendant McDavid, who has been in detention for three days, may have dashed Kelly’s hopes of an acquittal by saying he now doubts Kelly was telling the truth when she denied abusing anyone after hearing testimony from accusers.

In his closing arguments, prosecutor Jeannis Appenng cited testimony that Kelly’s inner circle became increasingly attentive to what Kelly wanted as his popularity grew in the mid-1990s.

“And ladies and gentlemen, R. “Kelly wanted to have sex with girls,” he said.

Four of Kelly’s accusers testified, all referred to by pseudonyms or their first names: Jane, Nia, Pauline and Tracy. Some cried as they described the abuse, but spoke calmly and confidently. A fifth defendant, Brittany, did not testify.

Sitting in a suit and face mask, Kelly often averted her eyes and looked down as the defendants spoke.

Several dozen Kelly fans regularly attended the trial. At least once, during a break, several people clapped Kelly’s hand. He replied with a smile.

Jane, 37, was the government’s top witness and a key figure on the prosecution, who accused Kelly of using threats and bribes to deceive a grand jury ahead of the 2008 trial and ensure she and her parents did not testify.

A video, which state prosecutors say showed Kelly abusing a girl of about 14 years old, was the centerpiece of the trial.

For two days on the witness stand in late August, Jane took a break, clutching her necklace and wiping her eyes with a tissue while publicly saying for the first time that the girl in the video was herself when she was 14 and that he was a child. . Kelly, who was in her 30s.

At the 2008 trial, some jurors said Kelly should be acquitted because the girl in the video did not testify. In a federal trial in Chicago, Jane said she lied to a state grand jury in 2002 when she said she wasn’t in the video, saying the reason she lied was because she cared about Kelly and didn’t want her to go. handle. in trouble

Jane told the jury that she was 15 when they first had sex. When asked how many times they had sex before turning 18, she calmly replied, “Countless times. … hundreds.”

Jane, who was in a teen singing group, met Kelly in the late 1990s when she was in high school. He visited Kelly’s Chicago recording studio with her aunt, a professional singer. Shortly after this meeting, Jane told her parents that Kelly would be her godmother.

Jane revealed that when her parents confronted Kelly in the early 2000s, she got down on her knees and begged for their forgiveness. He said he asked his parents not to take action against Kelly because he loved her.

Defense attorneys have suggested that the desire for money and fame has led some government witnesses to implicate Kelly and have accused several people of trying to blackmail him. They also suggested that at least one of her accusers was 17 years old, the Illinois age of consent, when Kelly started looking for her for sex.

Bonjean asked the jury not to accept the prosecution’s portrayal of his client as a “freak”, saying that Kelly was forced to trust others because of his intellectual challenges and that they sometimes misled him.

“Aten. Kelly can also be a victim,” he said in his opening statement.

Prosecutors showed the jury three of the videos Jane said she showed him. Court officials placed opaque screens around jurors to prevent reporters and spectators from seeing the video and the jurors’ reactions.

But the sound was heard. In one video, the girl can be heard calling the man “daddy” repeatedly. At one point, she asks, “Dad, do you still love me?” A man gives you sexual instructions.

Prosecutors said Kelly made the video, which was also evidence in the 2008 trial, in a log cabin in a Chicago home on the North Side around 1998.

Another accuser, Pauline, says that Jane introduced her to Kelly when they were 14-year-old high school classmates in 1998. Later that year, at Kelly’s Chicago home, Pauline described her surprise when she said she saw Kelly and Jane naked for first time. . She said Kelly told her that everyone has secrets. “This is our secret,” he said.

Pauline told the jury that she still worries about Kelly. But as a 37-year-old mother, she said she now has a different perspective.

“If anyone does anything to my children,” he said, “I will kill them. period.”