Thursday, federal prosecutors requested a court to sentence R. Kelly to an additional 25 years in prison for his child pornography and enticement convictions from last year in Chicago. This would be in addition to the 30 years he recently began serving in a New York case.
If the judge agrees to both the 25-year sentence and the government’s request that Kelly begin serving his Chicago sentence until after the 30-year New York sentence is completed, the 56-year-old would not be eligible for release until he is about 100 years old.
In a sentencing recommendation filed before midnight on Thursday in U.S. District Court in Chicago, prosecutors branded Kelly’s actions as “sadistic,” and labeled him a “a serial sexual predator” without remorse who “poses a serious danger to society.”
The 37-page government brief states, “The only way to ensure Kelly does not reoffend is to impose a sentence that will keep him in prison for the rest of his life,”
The sentencing of Kelly is scheduled for next Thursday in Chicago.
R. Kelly departs the Daley Center in Chicago on May 8, 2019, after a hearing in his child support lawsuit. Matt Marton / AP
Kelly’s attorney, Jennifer Bonjean, stated in a document this week that he would have to overcome all statistical chances to survive his 30-year New York sentence. She quoted statistics indicating that the average life expectancy of prisoners is 64 years.
She suggested a sentence of around ten years, at the lower end of the sentencing guidelines range, which may be served concurrently with the New York sentence.
Bonjean argued for a reduced sentence by asserting that Kelly, who is black, was singled out for conduct that white rock artists have gotten away with for decades.
She wrote: “None have been prosecuted and none will die in prison,”
In the Chicago case, prosecutors recognized that a 25-year sentence would exceed even the maximum recommended by sentencing guidelines. Nonetheless, they advocated for a lengthy sentence to be served only after the New York sentence had been completed.
“A consecutive sentence is eminently reasonable given the egregiousness of Kelly’s conduct,” claimed the filing. Kelly’s sexual abuse of youngsters was deliberate and widespread.
In Chicago, jury convicted the Grammy-winning singer on six of thirteen counts at her trial last year. In 2008, however, the government failed to prove that Kelly and his then-business manager successfully rigged his state child pornography trial.
Kelly’s co-defendants, including Derrel McDavid, his longstanding business manager, were cleared of all charges.
Kelly, born Robert Sylvester Kelly in Chicago, went from poverty to superstardom, becoming famous for sex-infused songs such as “I Believe I Can Fly” and “Bump n’ Grind.”
Criminal investigations were accelerated, resulting in federal and new state charges, only after the airing of Lifetime’s “Surviving R. Kelly” documentary series in 2019, which featured testimony from his accusers.
On the recommendation of Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx, a judge in Illinois dismissed state sex-abuse charges ahead to trial in January. Foxx stated that she felt comfortable dismissing the case because Kelly’s federal convictions would land him in prison for decades.
At Kelly’s federal trial in Chicago, prosecutors described him as a master manipulator who used his celebrity and money to lure star-struck followers whom he sexually abused and, in some instances, recorded on camera before discarding.
After deliberating for two days, the jury found Kelly guilty of three charges each of making child pornography and enticing children to engage in sexual activity, while acquitting him of obstruction of justice, one count of manufacturing child porn and three counts of receiving child porn.
A federal judge in New York sentenced Kelly to 30 years in prison for racketeering and sex trafficking months before the Chicago verdict. On the basis of this sentence alone, he would not be eligible for release until about the age of 80.
Even if allowed time off for good behavior, Kelly would not be eligible for release until he spends 25 years following his New York sentence in 2066, according to a government filing on Thursday.
Judge Harry Leinenweber in Chicago will resolve the key question of whether Kelly will serve his sentence concurrently, simultaneously, or consecutively with the New York sentence.
Kelly’s legal team is appealing his convictions in New York and Chicago. In an effort to ensure that, even if certain convictions are eventually overturned, convicts sentenced in prior cases will still serve time behind bars, prosecutors frequently seek lengthy terms.
Bonjean said that Kelly’s lifetime experiences, including childhood abuse and adult illiteracy, deserved mercy in sentencing the singer.
She stated that Kelly “is not an evil monster but a complex (unquestionably troubled) human-being who faced overwhelming challenges in childhood that shaped his adult life,”
She stated that the fact that the action for which he was condemned occurred decades ago should also be considered.
She maintained that while Kelly was not a child in the late 1990s, he was not not a middle-aged man at the time of his 2019 indictment. In his thirties, Kelly was a broken man.
She stated that Kelly had already paid a substantial financial price for his legal difficulties. She stated that he was formerly valued close to $1 billion but is now destitute.
»R. Kelly faces an additional 25 years of incarceration, as requested by the prosecution«