R. Kelly was convicted by a federal jury on Monday of racketeering in his sex trafficking trial. Kelly was found guilty of charges including sexual exploitation of a child, bribery, racketeering and sex trafficking involving five victims. He faces a possible sentence of 10 years to life in prison.
Federal prosecutors in the Eastern District of New York successfully proved to a jury of seven men and five women that Kelly was a predator and the head of a criminal enterprise, whose purpose was to lure girls, boys and women to the R&B singer for his sexual gratification. Prosecutors portrayed Kelly as a predator who over a quarter-century subjected his victims to violent physical and sexual abuse, some of which he recorded.
In addition to awaiting sentencing on the case in NY, Kelly will face a second federal trial on charges of child pornography and obstruction of justice in Illinois. Some of those accusations are related to a 2008 child pornography trial in Chicago, in which he was acquitted of all charges. Kelly also faces outstanding criminal charges in both Cook County, Ill., where he was indicted by the state attorney in Feb. 2019 for aggravated criminal sexual abuse involving four victims (three of them minors), and in Minnesota, where Mr. Kelly was charged in Aug. 2019 with engaging in prostitution with a minor.
Sentencing in New York is scheduled for May 4.
Editorial credit: Jamie Lamor Thompson / Shutterstock.com
