Sex predator Kelly guilty of all charges
NEW YORK: Singer R Kelly has been found guilty of sexually abusing women, boys and girls for decades – capping the 90s R&B superstar’s stunning fall from grace.
The “I Believe I Can Fly” crooner, 54, was convicted on all nine counts against him, including the most serious charges of racketeering and violations of the Mann Act, which prohibits the transport of “any woman or girl” across state lines for any “immoral purpose”.
Kelly, who was wearing a blue suit and white mask, sat stone-faced next to his lawyers as the verdict was read.
He faces 10 years to life in prison at his sentencing, which is scheduled for May 4, 2022.
“To the victims in this case, your voices were heard, and justice was finally served,” acting US Attorney Jacquelyn Kasulist said outside court after the verdict.
“No one deserves what they experienced at his hands. Or the threats and harassment they faced.”
A jury of seven men and five women deliberated for about nine hours across two days before reaching their unanimous verdict.
From the beginning of the month-long trial in the federal courthouse in downtown Brooklyn, prosecutors painted Kelly as a “predator” who used his fame and a cadre of employees to prey on his young victims.
“This case is not about a celebrity who likes to party a lot,” Assistant US Attorney
Maria Cruz Melendez said in her opening statement last month. “This case is about a predator,” she said.
To prove the racketeering charge against him, prosecutors showed jurors how Kelly used a network of friends and employees in his “inner circle” to transport his victims across state lines, control their actions and facilitate the sexual abuse.
Prosecutors from the Eastern District of New York called a parade of witnesses who testified about the abuse the disgraced singer subjected them to.
The first to take the stand was accuser Jerhonda Pace, who said Kelly repeatedly had sex with her over the course of several months after the two exchanged numbers at a party at the singer’s suburban Chicago mansion when she was under 18 years old.
During their last encounter, Kelly, whose full name is Robert Kelly, allegedly became enraged at Pace because she was texting on her cellphone and did not address him when he walked into the room she was in, she told jurors.
Kelly smacked her in the face and forced her to perform oral sex on him after berating her, she said in court.
Kelly’s lawyers sought to cast Pace and his other accusers as hysterical fans who were obsessed with Kelly and
concocted stories when he refused their advances.
One of his victims was R&B singer Aaliyah, whom Kelly illegally wed in a Chicago hotel room in 1994 when she was just 15 years old.
Kelly faces more criminal charges outside New York.