R. Kelly convicted of six counts at federal trial in Chicago; Co-accused acquitted

Noah15/09/2022

By ETOnline.com.
Published: 37 minutes ago

R. Kelly was found guilty on Wednesday of six of the 13 counts he faced at his federal trial in Chicago, while his two co-defendants and former associates were acquitted of all charges.

Kelly was convicted of three counts of child pornography and three counts of incitement to sex with minors, but acquitted of seven other counts, including obstruction of justice and conspiracy to view of receiving child pornography.

Co-defendants Derrell McDavid and Milton “June” Brown were acquitted of all charges.

Kelly, 55, was charged with tricking five girls into having sex and conspiring with two former associates to cover up his sex crimes by buying up incriminating videotapes. He was also accused along with his former business manager, Derrel McDavid, of arranging his 2008 child pornography trial in Cook County by intimidating and paying off witnesses.

Before the jury began their deliberations, Kelly’s lead defense attorney asked the jurors to put aside what they knew about the singer before the trial, acknowledging that most of that information was probably not favorable, and to treat him like a « John Doe ». Bonjean said the jury must make their decision based solely on the evidence heard in the courtroom, not on what they might know about Kelly through the media or what they heard at her topic elsewhere.

Bonjean said that no matter what the jurors might decide, Kelly did some great things when it came to making music, and he shouldn’t « be stripped of all his humanity. »

However, in rebuttal of the charge, Assistant US Attorney Jeannice Appenteng said the evidence was clear that Kelly sexually abused girls and that his co-defendants helped him cover it up.

“What R. Kelly wanted was to have sex with young girls,” Appenteng said.

Appenteng said that when the jury thinks about the case, they have to ask themselves who is at the center of it: Kelly’s victims. She said they were children when Kelly started having sex with them, and the jury should find him guilty.

“The defendants are guilty on each count. Hold them accountable,” Appenteng said.

Jurors heard four weeks of testimony from more than 30 witnesses and saw clips from three sex tapes that prosecutors say show Kelly sexually abusing her 14-year-old goddaughter.

During the trial, four women accused Kelly of sexually abusing them as girls, including the state’s star witness, who testified under the pseudonym « Jane », and told jurors that Kelly started to abuse her after becoming her godfather when she was only 14 years old. and had sex with her hundreds of times between the ages of 14 and 18.

Jane had denied for years that Kelly abused her, but now says Kelly bullied her and her family and paid them off to keep her abuse a secret. She now says she was the person in the video at the center of Kelly’s 2008 Cook County child pornography trial, and told the jury that Kelly recorded her on other videos shown in court.

McDavid was the only defendant to testify at trial, spending three days in the witness box, repeatedly telling jurors he believed Kelly when he denied sexually abusing girls in the early 2000s, but said that he had begun to doubt Kelly’s innocence after learning new things. during the ongoing federal trial.

Kelly has previously been sentenced to 30 years in prison after being convicted last year of racketeering and sex trafficking in federal court in New York.

This story was originally published by CBS News on September 14, 2022

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Noah15/09/2022

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