Feds seek R. Kelly sentence that would virtually guarantee singer never walks free
Prosecutors have asked a federal judge to sentence Kelly, 56, to a quarter-century in prison as a result of his conviction in Chicago last summer.
By Jon Seidel | Chicago Sun-Times
Feds seek R. Kelly sentence that would virtually guarantee singer never walks free
Prosecutors have asked a federal judge to sentence Kelly, 56, to a quarter-century in prison as a result of his conviction in Chicago last summer.
By Jon Seidel | Chicago Sun-TimesFederal prosecutors say R&B singer R. Kelly should be sentenced to another 25 years in prison — keeping him behind bars until 2066 and virtually guaranteeing he would never walk free again.
The feds made their request in a 37-page memo filed one week before Kelly is expected to be sentenced by U.S. District Judge Harry Leinenweber. Prosecutors asked the judge to sentence Kelly, 56, to a quarter-century in prison as a result of his conviction in Chicago last summer.
They said Kelly should not begin serving that sentence until after he has finished serving a 30-year federal prison sentence for racketeering, which is already likely to keep him locked up until his late 70s.
“Robert Kelly is a serial sexual predator who, over the course of many years, specifically targeted young girls and went to great lengths to conceal his abuse,” prosecutors wrote.
Kelly’s defense attorney last week asked the judge to give Kelly a sentence of around 11 years, but she also asked that the judge fashion the sentence so Kelly would serve that time while also serving his racketeering sentence from a New York case.
A federal jury in Chicago last summer convicted Kelly of three counts of producing child pornography and three counts of enticing a minor into criminal sexual activity.
The verdict brought potential closure to a decades-long saga in Kelly’s hometown. The star witness in the Chicago case was a woman known in court as “Jane.” Now in her late 30s, she has long been at the center of sexual abuse allegations against Kelly — and Kelly’s attorneys recently revealed she is seeking millions in restitution from the star.
In their memo, prosecutors referred to a notorious video of Kelly sexually abusing Jane, made public in 2001, which they said “will forever be sought after and circulated to a significant degree because R. Kelly is R. Kelly.”
“The video has, in a despicable and insidious way, become part of the social record,” prosecutors wrote. “The very public consumption of [the video] is something that Jane grew up with and will live with for the rest of her life.”
The Chicago jury also convicted Kelly for his abuse of two others who were underage at the time. They were known in court as “Pauline” and “Nia.”
Pauline declared to the jury that she and Kelly “f---ed a lot.” Now in her late 30s, she said Jane introduced her to Kelly when she and Jane were 14. She said her abuse by Kelly turned to sexual intercourse when she was 15 or 16, and she said she participated in numerous threesomes with Kelly and Jane.
Nia, now in her early 40s, said she met Kelly at age 15 in 1996. She said Kelly touched her breasts and masturbated in a hotel room after a concert in Minneapolis, and he once fondled her in a hallway in his Chicago recording studio.