Disgraced R&B singer R. Kelly, who is serving a 30-year prison sentence for sex crimes, was found guilty of child pornography and other charges Wednesday after a monthlong trial in his hometown of Chicago.
Kelly, whose full name is Robert Sylvester Kelly, was convicted of three counts of manufacturing child pornography and three counts of solicitation of minors.
The three-time Grammy winner was acquitted by a federal jury on seven other counts, including obstruction of justice in a previous trial.
Kelly and two former associates were accused of perjury in a 2008 child pornography trial in which a jury returned a not guilty verdict.
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Kelly’s former manager, Derrell McDavid, and former employee, Milton “June” Brown, stood trial alongside the singer in the latest trial and were also acquitted of obstruction charges.
The 12-person jury took about 11 hours over two days to reach its verdict, which could add additional decades in prison to the 30 years Kelly is already serving.
The minor victim refused to testify at the 2008 trial due to alleged threats and bribery, but this time a 37-year-old woman testified.
“The guilty verdicts finally bring Robert Kelly to justice for the sexual assault of a 14-year-old girl, and they help correct wrongdoing in a previous prosecution in Cook County,” John Lausch, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, said of the trial. of 2008.
“The damage Mr. Kelly has done to his victims is immeasurable. I want to thank the victims for their strength, resilience and courage in coming forward to testify in court,” he added.
A sentencing date was not immediately set. Kelly faces 10 to 90 years in prison for the new convictions, Lausch’s office said in a statement.
During the trial, jurors were shown excerpts from videotapes showing Kelly sexually abusing girls as young as 14.
Kelly was convicted in New York last September of recruiting teenagers and women for sex.
The “I Believe I Can Fly” singer was found guilty of eight counts of sex trafficking and one count of racketeering in the New York case.
Faces further charges
Kelly’s conviction in New York was seen as a milestone for the #MeToo movement: it was the first major sexual assault trial in which the majority of accusers were black women.
It was also the first time Kelly faced criminal consequences for abusing women and children.
Kelly also faces prosecution in two other states.
In the New York case, his accusers described events that often repeated each other.
Many of the alleged victims said they met the singer at concerts or mall performances, and members of his entourage later passed on slips of paper with Kelly’s contact information.
Some said they were told he could boost their aspirations in the music industry.
But prosecutors argued that all were instead “indoctrinated” into Kelly’s world – groomed for sex at his whim and kept in line with “coercive controls” including isolation and harsh disciplinary measures.
At the heart of the New York affair was Kelly’s relationship with the late singer Aaliyah.
Kelly wrote and produced his first album – Age Ain’t Nothin’ But A Number – before illegally marrying her when she was just 15 because he feared he had impregnated her.
His former manager admitted in court to bribing a worker to obtain a fake union-authorizing certificate, which was later revoked.
