R. Kelly

R. Kelly is sentenced to 30 years in prison

NPR • 

The disgraced R&B star R. Kelly was sentenced Wednesday to 30 years in prison.

He was sentenced in New York by federal Judge Ann Donnelly, who spoke at length before issuing the sentence. At one point, she quoted a victim impact statement from a woman known in court as Stephanie, who told Kelly, "No price was too high for someone else to pay for your happiness."

"This case is not about sex," the judge said. "It is about violence, cruelty and control."

Donnelly acknowledged points made by defense, including that Kelly endured a very difficult childhood, with sexual abuse at the hands of his sister and a landlord. However, she added, "You are a person who had great advantages — worldwide fame and celebrity, untold money."

Kelly declined to address the court himself. His lawyer cited pending cases: a second federal trial in Illinois, slated to begin Aug. 15, and separate criminal charges in Minnesota. The charges include child pornography and obstruction of justice.

Kelly's conviction

Last year, Kelly was found guilty of charges including sexual exploitation of a child, racketeering, bribery and sex trafficking. The jury found the government proved Kelly was at the head of a criminal conspiracy to recruit and coerce girls, boys and women into sex.

During the weekslong trial, multiple victims established a pattern where they would see Kelly at a show or out in public, and an associate of Kelly would hand them a phone number to call. From there they would be ensnared in a system of sexual and psychological abuse. Kelly forced his victims to perform sexual acts for his gratification (which he often filmed). He set up strict rules dictating where his victims were allowed to go and who they were allowed to speak to. And he forced to them to write letters or video tape themselves claiming they were doing everything of their own free will.

Accusers spoke about how he hurt them

Before the judge announced Kelly's sentence, seven women made their own statements to and about him and about the abuse they suffered. At no point did Kelly look at his accusers.

A woman identified in court as Angela said, "We will be able to live again."

She said, "I am a representation of every woman, boy, child, man that you have ever afflicted with your deplorable, inexplicable acts, and with that I leave you with yourself, Robert Sylvester Kelly."

Another woman, known in court as Jane Doe 2, described enduring depression and stress related to Kelly's abuse. She paused in her comments to demand his attention when Kelly whispered to his attorney. "I'm sorry," she said. "I don't want to interrupt his conversation."

A man identified as Charles, the father of another woman, said in a resigned tone, "So many people love you and they hate us." He noted that Kelly hadn't expressed remorse. Charles urged Kelly to confess and to ask for God's forgiveness.

Kelly's defense lawyer promises an appeal

"Obviously he's devastated," Kelly's lawyer Jennifer Bonjean said outside the courthouse. "Thirty years in prison is like a life sentence for him, but at the same time we knew the government was asking for 25 years. We were prepared for what the judge might impose and we are now prepared to fight this appeal."

Victims were heard

After the sentencing hearing, U.S. Attorney Breon Peace said the case meant the "voices of mostly Black and brown women and children ... were heard and believed, and for [them,] justice was finally achieved."

The sentencing comes after decades of allegations against the multi-platinum singer. In 2008, he stood trial in his hometown of Chicago for child pornography. He was acquitted of all charges.

From there, Kelly continued to live his life of superstardom, performing across the world and selling out venues.

In 2019, the TV docuseries Surviving R. Kelly renewed interest in the sexual abuse allegations against Kelly and gave a sustained push to the activists who had been pushing for Kelly to be pulled off airwaves and stages.

Jovante Cunningham, an accuser who had appeared in Surviving R. Kelly, said after the sentencing, "There wasn't a day in my life, up until this moment, that I actually believed that the judicial system would come through for Black and brown girls. Thirty years did he do this, and 30 years is what he got."

R. Kelly sentenced to 30 years for sex trafficking and racketeering

NEW YORK Disgraced R&B superstar R. Kelly was sentenced Wednesday to 30 years in prison for using his fame to sexually abuse young fans, including some who were just children, in a systematic scheme that went on for decades.

Through tears and anger, several of Kelly’s accusers told a court, and the singer himself, that he had misled and preyed upon them.

“You made me do things that broke my spirit. I literally wished I would die because of how low you made me feel,” said one unnamed survivor, directly addressing Kelly, who kept his hands folded and his eyes downcast.

“Do you remember that?” she asked.

Kelly, 55, didn’t give a statement and showed no reaction on hearing his penalty, which also included a $100,000 fine. He has denied wrongdoing, and he plans to appeal his conviction.

The Grammy-winning, multiplatinum-selling songwriter was found guilty last year of racketeering and sex trafficking at a trial that gave voice to accusers who had previously wondered if their stories were being ignored because they were Black women.

Victims “have sought to be heard and acknowledged,” another one of his accusers said at his sentencing. “We are no longer the preyed-on individuals we once were.”

A third woman, sobbing and sniffling as she spoke, said Kelly’s conviction renewed her confidence in the legal system.

“I once lost hope,” she said, addressing the court and prosecutors, “but you restored my faith.”

The woman said Kelly victimized her after she went to a concert when she was 17.

“I was afraid, naive and didn’t know to handle the situation,” she said, so she didn’t speak up at the time.

“Silence,” she said, “is a very lonely place.”

Kelly’s lawyer, Jennifer Bonjean, said he was “devastated” by the sentence and saddened by what he had heard.

“He’s a human being. He feels what other people are feeling. But that doesn’t mean that he can accept responsibility in the way that the government would like him to and other people would like him to. Because he disagrees with the characterizations that have been made about him,” she said.

The sentence caps a slow-motion fall for Kelly, who is known for work including the 1996 hit “I Believe I Can Fly” and the cult classic “Trapped in the Closet,” a multipart tale of sexual betrayal and intrigue.

He was adored by legions of fans and sold millions of albums even after allegations about his abuse of young girls began circulating publicly in the 1990s. He beat child pornography charges in Chicago in 2008, when a jury acquitted him.

Widespread outrage over Kelly’s sexual misconduct didn’t emerge until the #MeToo reckoning, reaching a crescendo after the release of the documentary “Surviving R. Kelly.”

“I hope this sentencing serves as its own testimony that it doesn’t matter how powerful, rich or famous your abuser may be or how small they make you feel — justice only hears the truth,” Brooklyn U.S. Attorney Breon Peace said Wednesday.

A Brooklyn federal court jury convicted the singer, born Robert Sylvester Kelly, after hearing that he used his entourage of managers and aides to meet girls and keep them obedient, an operation that prosecutors said amounted to a criminal enterprise.

Several accusers testified that Kelly subjected them to perverse and sadistic whims when they were underage.

The accusers alleged they were ordered to sign nondisclosure forms and were subjected to threats and punishments such as violent spankings if they broke what one referred to as “Rob’s rules.”

Some said they believed the videotapes he shot of them having sex would be used against them if they exposed what was happening.

According to testimony, Kelly gave several accusers herpes without disclosing he had an STD, coerced a teenage boy to join him for sex with a naked girl who emerged from underneath a boxing ring in his garage, and shot a shaming video that showed one victim smearing feces on her face as punishment for breaking his rules.

“The horrors your victims endured,” U.S. District Judge Ann Donnelly said as she sentenced him. “No price was too high to pay for your happiness.”

Evidence also was presented about a fraudulent marriage scheme hatched to protect Kelly after he feared he had impregnated R&B phenom Aaliyah in 1994 when she was just 15. Witnesses said they were married in matching jogging suits using a license falsely listing her age as 18; he was 27 at the time.

Aaliyah worked with Kelly, who wrote and produced her 1994 debut album, “Age Ain’t Nothing But A Number.” She died in a plane crash in 2001 at age 22.

Kelly didn’t testify at his trial, but his then-lawyers portrayed his accusers as girlfriends and groupies who weren’t forced to do anything against their will and stayed with him because they enjoyed the perks of his lifestyle.

His current lawyers had argued he should get no more than 10 years in prison because he had a traumatic childhood “involving severe, prolonged childhood sexual abuse, poverty, and violence.”

As an adult with “literacy deficiencies,” the star was “repeatedly defrauded and financially abused, often by the people he paid to protect him,” his lawyers said.

The Associated Press does not name people who say they have been sexually assaulted or abused, unless they come forward publicly. The women who spoke at Kelly’s sentencing were identified only by first names or pseudonyms.