R Kelly, 56, is already serving a 30-year sentence. (File)
New York:
A US choose on Thursday handed disgraced R&B singer R Kelly a 20-year jail time period for little one pornography and different fees — however he’ll serve most of it concurrently with a earlier sentence.
Kelly, 56, is already serving a 30-year sentence he obtained after a Brooklyn jury in a separate federal trial convicted him on racketeering and intercourse trafficking fees.
The choose in Chicago — Kelly’s hometown, the place he was as soon as seen as a supply of delight — dominated that a lot of the new sentence could be served concurrently with the earlier one, with all however one 12 months taken on the similar time.
That Kelly will spend a most of 31 years in jail is a win for the protection, which urged in its sentencing memorandum that “a concurrent sentence is what equity calls for,” accusing the prosecution of partaking in a “quest to make sure that Kelly by no means sees the sunshine of day.”
His lawyer, Jennifer Bonjean, is interesting each of Kelly’s federal convictions.
The artist born Robert Sylvester Kelly was convicted in September 2022 on six of 13 counts alleged within the Chicago trial: three counts of manufacturing little one pornography and three of enticement of a minor.
The singer identified for hits together with “I Consider I Can Fly” was acquitted by a federal jury of the seven different counts, together with fees that he obstructed justice in a earlier trial.
Kelly and two ex-associates had been accused of rigging the singer’s 2008 little one pornography proceedings during which a jury delivered a verdict of not responsible.
The federal conviction in Chicago got here one 12 months after Kelly was convicted in New York of systematically recruiting youngsters and girls for intercourse.
That verdict was broadly seen as a milestone for the #MeToo motion: it was the primary main intercourse abuse trial the place nearly all of the accusers have been Black girls.
It was additionally the primary time Kelly confronted prison penalties for the abuse he was rumored for many years to have inflicted on girls and youngsters.
(Apart from the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV workers and is printed from a syndicated feed.)
Featured Video Of The Day
“Assam Police Was Responsibility-Sure To Arrest Pawan Khera”: Himanta Sarma To NDTV