R. Kelly, a former high-flying R&B musician who has since been found guilty of sex crimes, was given a 20-year prison term on Thursday for yet another series of sex offenses, including many allegations of child pornography.
Nevertheless, 19 of those years will be spent concurrently with the time he is already serving in prison, so only one year will be added to the end of his 30-year previous sentence.
Kelly, 56, was cleared of a fourth child pornography charge as well as a conspiracy to obstruct justice charge accusing him of manipulating his state child pornography trial in 2008. Kelly was found guilty in September on three charges of child pornography as well as three counts of child enticement.
His 2021 racketeering and sex trafficking convictions in New York have already resulted in a 30-year sentence for him. Following the racketeering sentence, which was delivered last year in New York, U.S. District Judge Harry Leinenweber ordered Kelly to serve one year in prison.
Kelly would virtually spend the rest of his life in prison if the 25 more years Kelly was to receive were to run concurrently with the New York federal case sentence, as urged by prosecutors in a sentencing letter last week. Yet Kelly won't spend more than 31 years in prison after Thursday's verdict. He will be eligible for parole around the age of 80, giving him a slim chance of ever escaping from prison.
A 25-year term, which the prosecution recognized would be more than the sentencing guidelines call for, was necessary "to safeguard the community from" Kelly, they claimed, because of his "insatiable drive to sexually abuse children."
On the lower end of the recommended range, Kelly's attorney, Jennifer Bonjean, requested a sentence of approximately 10 years.
In a number of pre-sentence petitions, she also asked that Leinenweber permit Kelly to spend any jail term she received concurrently with the New York sentence.
A fresh consecutive term, according to Bonjean, would be a "second life sentence."
What took place at the sentencing?
At the beginning of the hearing, Leinenweber stated that he disagreed with the government's claim that Kelly used fear to entice underage girls to have sex.
“The (government’s) whole theory of grooming, was sort of the opposite of fear of bodily harm,” the judge told the court. “It was the fear of lost love, lost affections (from Kelly). … It just doesn’t seem to me that it rises to the fear of bodily harm.”
Kelly's crimes against minors and lack of contrition, according to the prosecution, warrant a harsher punishment.
At the beginning of the hearing, when the court questioned Kelly about whether he had checked important pre-sentencing documents for any errors, Kelly responded calmly.
"Your honor, I have discussed it with my attorney," Kelly explained. "I'm going to rely on my attorney for that."
Kelly's two accusers pleaded with the judge to punish him severely.
A lady who testified in court using the alias "Jane" claimed that she had lost her early ambitions to become a singer and her dreams for satisfying relationships in a statement that was read aloud in court.
"I have lost my dreams to Robert Kelly," the statement said. "I will never get back what I lost to Robert Kelly. … I have been permanently scarred by Robert."
During Kelly's trial, she was a key witness for prosecutors, and four of his convictions are linked to her.
"When your virginity is taken by a pedophile at the age of 14... your life is never your own," Jane wrote in her statement.
At the hearing, a second accuser who went by the alias "Nia" spoke to Kelly directly. Nia remarked strongly as her voice trembled that Kelly would constantly point out her claimed flaws while mistreating her.
"Now you are here … because there is something wrong with you," she said. "No longer will you be able to harm children."
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