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R. Kelly must spend another year in prison on top of the 30 years he is already serving for his crimes.
After a trial in New York in June 2022, Kelly was sentenced to 30 years for sex trafficking and racketeering.
Several months later, in a second federal trial in Chicago, he was found guilty of trying to get minors to have sex with him and making child sexual images.
He is now serving a 20-year sentence for these crimes, but 19 of those years will be served at the same time as the first sentence.
If he stays in jail until the end of his sentence, he will be in his mid-80s.
In the second case, federal prosecutors wanted a 25-year sentence longer than what federal sentencing guidelines called for. They said that Kelly’s crimes were worse because he filmed them, and some videos were later posted online.
The memo said that R. Kelly wants to abuse children “until he dies” and needs a long sentence to “protect the community” from more harm.
Jennifer Bonjean, Kelly’s defense lawyer, asked the judge to let Kelly serve his latest sentence at the same time as his previous sentence. This means that he would have served both sentences at the same time. She said a second sentence would be like getting a chance at life.
She also said that prosecutors “flamed up” public opinion about the former R&B star by telling an ” exaggerated story.”
During the Chicago trial, the victim, named “Jane,” said that Kelly sexually abused her hundreds of times before she turned 18.
During the trial, three videos of the abuse were shown to the jury. Four other women also said that R. Kelly hurt them when they were kids.
In his last trial in New York, jurors heard that Kelly used his managers and other people in his group to help him move women around the US so he could sexually abuse them.
The Grammy-winning singer is best known for songs like “Ignition (Remix)” and “I Believe I Can Fly,” which was a huge hit in 1996. She is one of the most famous musicians accused of abuse since the #MeToo movement began.
Timeline of sexual abuse by R. Kelly
The R&B singer R. Kelly had been accused of sexual abuse for more than 20 years.
The stories went back to the beginning of his career in the 1990s. Then, many of them were about how he preyed on teenage girls.
In 2022, a New York court found him guilty of eight counts of sex trafficking and one count of racketeering. He was sentenced to 30 years in prison.
In a second federal trial in Chicago a few months later, he was found guilty of sexual abuse of a child.
The singer, Robert Sylvester Kelly, will also be charged with sexual assault in Minnesota.
R. Kelly himself was abused sexually as a child. In his autobiography, he wrote about how a family member raped him when he was eight.
Here is a history of the things that have been said about him.
1994: Marries Aaliyah
Kelly married 15-year-old singer Aaliyah in a secret ceremony in Chicago when she was 27 years old.
Vibe magazine later discovered that Aaliyah had lied about her age on the marriage license by saying she was 18. So in February 1995, the marriage was thrown out.
At his trial, Kelly’s former tour manager said that in 1994, Kelly paid off a government worker to get a fake ID for Aaliyah so that the two singers could get married.
After Aaliyah died in a plane crash in 2001, Kelly rarely talked about her. He doesn’t talk about her in his autobiography. An author’s note says that “certain events could not be included for complicated reasons.”
1996: Sued for mental anguish
Tiffany Hawkins filed a lawsuit against R. Kelly for “personal injuries and emotional distress” she said she got from being with the star for three years.
She said in court papers that she started having sex with Kelly in 1991 when she was 15 and he was 24. They broke up when she turned 18. The Chicago Sun-Times says that Ms. Hawkins asked for $10 million in damages but settled for $250,000 when the case was over in 1998.
Kelly’s spokeswoman said she “didn’t know” about the claims.
April and May 2002: Two more cases go to court
Patrice Jones, a woman from Chicago, is suing Kelly because she says he got her pregnant when she was too young and made her have an abortion.
Montina Woods also sued Kelly, saying he secretly filmed them having sex. The recording may have been shared on a “sex tape” called R. Kelly Triple-X that pirates sold.
The singer settled both cases out of court, paying amounts that can’t be talked about in exchange for NDAs.
Charged in June 2002 for videos of child abuse
He is charged with 21 counts of making videos of different sexual acts on children that are sexual abuse.
The police in Chicago said that he had taped the acts and tried to get a minor to participate in them. All of the charges were against a girl born in September 1984.
A video sent to the Chicago Sun Times by an unknown person earlier in the year led to his arrest. They gave it to the police, who used help from FBI forensic experts to ensure it was real.
Read Also: Harvey Weinstein convicted of sexual assault
Kelly posted bail of $750,000 and immediately denied the charges in an interview with MTV. She also pleaded not guilty in court
