A federal jury has convicted R. Kelly of additional sex crimes, according to the Chicago Tribune.
The verdict was announced Wednesday in Chicago, less than three months after the disgraced singer received a 30-year prison sentence for sex trafficking and racketeering in New York. The latest trial centered on videotapes in which Kelly is allegedly seen sexually abusing a 14-year-old girl.
After 11 hours of deliberation, the jury convicted Kelly on three counts of child pornography and three counts of child enticement. However, he was acquitted on seven other charges: one for conspiracy to receive child pornography, and six for obstruction of justice. The latter charges stemmed from Kelly’s 2008 child pornography trial in Cook County, when he and his co-defendants allegedly intimidated and paid off witnesses. That trial ultimately ended with Kelly’s acquittal, as the 14-year-old victim refused to testify. The singer’s two co-defendants were found not guilty on all charges.
Fast-forward to August of this year, when the accuser took the stand for the first and testified against Kelly.
“I became exhausted with living with [Kelly’s] lies,” she said when pressed about her decades-long silence.
The witness, who testified under the pseudonym “Jane,” claimed the sexual abuse started when she was 14, after Kelly became her godfather. Jane told the court she and her family denied the abuse allegations because Kelly had used his power and wealth to keep them quiet.
During the five-week trial, jurors reviewed multiple videos in which Kelly is allegedly seen having sex with Jane. Prosecutors say one of the clips showed a then-30-year-old Kelly urinating on an underage Jane.
“Robert Kelly abused many girls over many years,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Elizabeth Pozolo told the jury. “He committed horrible crimes against children. … All these years later, the hidden side of Robert Kelly has come out. That child, who had no prior sexual experiences in her life, was forced to lay on that floor while that man sitting right over there urinated on her. That degrading act is forever captured on that video. That abuse is forever memorialized.”
