R. Kelly must spend another year in prison on top of the 30 years he is already doing for his crimes.
Kelly was found guilty of sex trafficking and racketeering in a trial in New York in June 2022. He was given a 30-year sentence.
A few months later, he was found guilty in a second federal trial in Chicago of trying to get minors to have sex with him and making sexual images of children.
He is now serving a 20-year sentence for these crimes, but he will serve 19 of those years at the same time as the first sentence.
He will be in his mid-80s if he stays in jail until the end of his sentence.
In the second case, federal prosecutors wanted a sentence 25 years longer than what federal sentencing guidelines called for. They said that Kelly’s crimes were worse because he filmed them and then uploaded some videos online.
The memo said that Kelly wants to abuse children “until he dies” and needs a long sentence to “protect the community” from more harm.
Kelly’s lawyer, Jennifer Bonjean, asked the judge to let Kelly serve his new sentence at the same time as his old one. This means that he would have been in jail simultaneously for both sentences. She said getting a second chance at life would be like getting a second sentence.
She also said prosecutors “flamed up” public opinion about the former R&B star by making up a story.
During the Chicago trial, the victim, “Jane,” said that Kelly sexually abused her hundreds of times before she turned 18.
Three videos of the abuse were shown to the jury while the case was going on. Four other women also said that when they were kids, Kelly hurt them.
At 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 big hit in 1996. She is one of the most well-known musicians accused of sexual misconduct since the #MeToo movement started.
Timeline of cases against R. Kelly 1994-2002
More than 20 years ago, R. Kelly, an R&B singer, was accused of sexual abuse.
The stories went back to when he first started working in the 1990s. Of course, many of them were about how he took advantage of young women.
In 2022, a court in New York found him guilty of sex trafficking on eight counts and racketeering on one. He was given a 30-year prison sentence.
A few months later, in a second federal trial in Chicago, he was found guilty of sexually abusing a child.
Robert Sylvester Kelly, the singer, will also be charged in Minnesota with sexual assault.
R. Kelly was sexually abused as a child. In his autobiography, he said that a family member raped him when he was eight.
Here is a timeline of what people have said about him.
1994: Marries Aaliyah
When Kelly was 27, she married 15-year-old singer Aaliyah in a secret ceremony in Chicago.
Vibe magazine later found out that Aaliyah had lied about her age on the marriage license, saying she was 18 when she was only 17. So, the marriage ended in February 1995.
Kelly’s former tour manager testified at his trial that in 1994, Kelly bribed a government worker to get Aaliyah a fake ID so the two singers could marry.
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Kelly rarely talked about Aaliyah after she died in a plane crash in 2001. In his autobiography, he doesn’t talk about her. An author’s note says that “certain events could not be included for complicated reasons.”
1996: Sued for emotional pain
Tiffany Hawkins sued R. Kelly because she said she got “personal injuries and emotional distress” from being with the star for three years.
She said in court papers that she had her first sexual encounter with R. Kelly when she was 15 and he was 24. Then, when she turned 18, they broke up. The Chicago Sun-Times says that Ms. Hawkins wanted $10 million in damages, but when the case was over in 1998, she settled for $250,000.
A spokesperson for Kelly said that she “didn’t know” about the claims.
Two more cases went to court in April and May 2002.
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 R. Kelly, saying he secretly filmed them having sex. Pirates may have sold the recording on a “sex tape” called R. Kelly Triple-X.
The singer settled both cases out of court, paying amounts that can’t be discussed in exchange for NDAs.
In June 2002, he was charged with videos of child abuse.
He is being charged with 21 counts of sexual abuse for making videos of different sexual acts on children.
The Chicago police said that he had recorded the acts and tried to get a child to participate. 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 made sure it was real with help from the FBI.
R. Kelly paid $750,000 in bail and then went on MTV to immediately deny the charges. In court, she also said she wasn’t guilty.
