Kelly, 55, was found guilty of three counts of child pornography and three counts of soliciting a minor for sex, but was acquitted of seven other counts, including obstruction of justice and conspiracy to obtain child pornography. Each of the child pornography charges carries a sentence of up to 20 years in prison, and the solicitation charges carry a sentence of up to 10 years in prison. Co-defendants Derrell McDavid and Milton “June” Brown were acquitted of all charges. Jurors deliberated for about 11 hours over two days before reaching their verdict. Kelly was convicted of three of four counts of producing child pornography by filming himself having sex with his underage goddaughter, who testified against him under the pseudonym “Jane.” Jurors saw parts of those three videos in court. Jurors acquitted him of a fourth count of child pornography involving a tape that Jane and prosecutors said showed Kelly having a threesome with Jane and his ex-girlfriend, Lisa Van Allen, but that tape was not shown in court. Prosecutors had argued that this was because Kelly and his team successfully covered it up. Jurors acquitted Kelly and McDavid, his former business manager, of conspiracy to obstruct justice charges that accused them of rigging his 2008 child pornography trial in Cook County by covering up incriminating sex tapes and intimidating and paying Jane and her parents to keep him. abuse of her secret. Kelly, McDavid and Brown were also acquitted of a conspiracy to obtain child pornography charge that accused them of trying to retrieve and cover up three sex tapes involving Jane. Kelly and McDavid were also acquitted of two counts of receiving child pornography, which involved further allegations that they tried to retrieve and cover up other videos of Jane. The government’s case for those charges rested heavily on the testimony of Charles Freeman and Lisa Van Allen, whom defense attorneys described as liars out to extort money from Kelly. Ultimately, Kelly was convicted of three of five counts of soliciting minors to engage in sexual activity, but was acquitted of two other counts. Jurors convicted him of enticement charges involving Jane and two other accusers who testified under the pseudonyms “Nia” and “Pauline,” while acquitting him of enticement charges involving accusers “Tracy” and “Brittany.” Jane had accused Kelly of abusing her hundreds of times after becoming her godfather when she was just 14. Prosecutors showed jurors three videos they said showed Kelly having sex with Jane, including one that showed him telling her to lie on the floor while he urinated on her. Nia had testified that she first met Kelly in 1996, when she was just 15, and that they had two sexual encounters, one at a hotel during his Minnesota tour and another later that year at his music studio in Chicago. Pauline testified that Jane introduced her to Kelly when she was just 14, and the three soon began a threesome, before Pauline began her own sexual relationship with Kelly on her own when she was 15. It was estimated that he had sex with Kelly more than 80 times and had 60 trimesters with Kelly and Jane between the ages of 14 and 16. Tracy testified that she met Kelly in 1999 when she was an off-the-books intern for an Epic Records executive and claimed that, when she was just 16, Kelly was “forced” on her at a downtown Chicago hotel. He said the two later developed a sexual relationship that continued after her 17th birthday. But defense lawyers disputed her claims, citing a previous lawsuit she filed against Kelly in which she claimed they met and had sex in 2000, when she was 17. Brittany did not testify at trial, and while both Jane and Pauline testified that they had threesomes with Kelly and Brittany when they were just girls, defense attorneys picked up on the fact that Brittany did not testify herself, asking jurors at the end : “Where’s Brittany! “ Before the jury began its deliberations, Kelly’s lead defense attorney asked jurors to set aside what they knew about the singer before the trial, acknowledging that most of it was probably not favorable, and treat him as “John Doe”. Bonjean said the jury should make its decision based only on the evidence they heard in the courtroom, not what they may know about Kelly through the media or what they’ve heard about him elsewhere.
Bonjean said that whatever the jury decides, Kelly has done some beautiful things in terms of making music and shouldn’t “be stripped of every vestige of humanity that he has.” But in the prosecution’s rebuttal argument, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeannice Appenteng said the evidence was clear Kelly sexually abused girls and his co-defendants helped him cover it up. “What R. Kelly wanted was to have sex with young girls,” Appenteng said. Appenteng said when the jury deliberates on the case, it will have to consider who is at the center of it: Kelly’s victims. He said they were children when Kelly began having sex with them and the jury should find him guilty. “The defendants are guilty of every charge in the indictment. Hold them accountable,” Appenteng said.
Jurors heard four weeks of testimony from more than 30 witnesses and saw clips from three sex tapes that prosecutors say show Kelly sexually abusing his 14-year-old goddaughter.
During the trial, four women accused Kelly of sexually abusing them when they were girls, including the state’s star witness, who testified under the pseudonym “Jane” and told jurors that Kelly began abusing her after he became her godfather when he was only 14 years old. and had sex with her hundreds of times between the ages of 14 and 18. Jane had denied for years that Kelly abused her, but now says Kelly bullied her and her family and paid them to keep his abuse a secret. Now she says she was the person in the video at the center of Kelly’s 2008 child pornography trial in Cook County and told jurors that Kelly recorded her in other videos that were shown in court. McDavid was the only defendant to testify at the trial, repeatedly telling jurors he believed Kelly when she denied sexually abusing girls in the early 2000s, but said he began to doubt Kelly’s innocence after learning new things. during the ongoing federal trial. Kelly has already been sentenced to 30 years in prison after being convicted last year of extortion and sex trafficking charges in federal court in New York. Kelly is also awaiting trial in Cook County on sexual assault and battery charges involving four women, three of whom were girls at the time of the abuse. He also faces charges of soliciting a minor for prostitution in Minnesota. Read more about the response to Wednesday’s verdict below.