YOU R. GUILTY!
B'klyn jurors convict Kelly on all counts
R. Kelly was found guilty on Monday of sexually abusing girls, boys and women for decades, capping the ’90s R&B superstar’s stunning fall from grace.
The “I Believe I Can Fly” singer, 54, was convicted in Brooklyn federal court on all nine counts against him, including racketeering and violations of the Mann Act, which prohibits the transport of any woman or girl across state lines for any “immoral purpose.”
He will face 10 years to life in prison at his sentencing, scheduled for May 4, 2022.
Kelly, wearing a blue suit and white mask, sat stone-faced as the verdict was read in court.
“To the victims in this case, your voices were heard, and justice was finally served,” Acting Brooklyn 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 nine hours over two days before reaching their sweeping verdict.
From the beginning of the monthlong trial, prosecutors painted Kelly as a predator who used his fame and a cadre of staff to prey on 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.”
To prove the racketeering charge, 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 called in a parade of witnesses who testified about the abuse they suffered at the hands of the singer.
The first to take the stand was Jerhonda Pace, who said Kelly repeatedly had sex with her over several months after the two exchanged phone numbers at a party at the singer’s suburban Chicago mansion when she was under 18 years old.
In their last encounter, Kelly, whose full name is Robert Kelly, became enraged at Pace because she was texting on her cellphone and did not address him when he walked into the room, she told jurors.
Kelly smacked her in the face, spat on her, called her a “bitch” and forced her to perform oral sex, she said. Kelly’s lawyers cast Pace and his other accusers as obsessed fans who concocted stories about him after he refused their advances.
One of his victims was the late R&B singer Aaliyah (below), whom Kelly illegally wed in a Chicago hotel room in 1994 when she was 15. A witness testified that she saw Kelly perform oral sex on Aaliyah when she was 13 or 14.
A former tour manager for Kelly testified in August that he bribed a Chicago-area welfare-office employee to make a fake ID for Aaliyah that listed her age as 18. Kelly was 27 at the time.
Prosecutors alleged Kelly wed Aaliyah, who died in a 2001 plane crash at age 22, to dodge criminal charges of having sex with a minor and to block her from testifying against him about the abuse.
A lawyer for Kelly, Devereaux Cannick, said after the verdict that the defense would likely file an appeal but did not specify when that could happen.
Gloria Allred, who represents one of Kelly’s victims, read a statement written by her client, identified as Sonja, outside court after the verdict.
“I’ve been hiding from Robert Kelly in fear, due to threats made against me, and I’m ready to start loving my life free from fear, and to start the healing process,” Sonja wrote.
Kelly faces more criminal charges outside New York.
He has been charged by state prosecutors in Minnesota with engaging in prostitution with a minor and by federal prosecutors in Illinois for child pornography and obstruction.