R. Kelly, 55, was found guilty of sex trafficking and racketeering charges, and will now spend three decades in prison — a sentence that is likely to mean that he will spend the rest of his life behind bars. The R&B singer was sentenced in New York City on June 29, 2022, nine months after his convictions on racketeering, bribery, sexual exploitation of a child, kidnapping, and sex trafficking.
Judge Ann M. Donnelly didn’t hold back on the impact of his violent crimes when handing down the sentence. “These crimes were calculated and carefully planned and regularly executed for almost 25 years,” she said, per The New York Times. “You taught them that love is enslavement and violence.” His devastating sentence is just the beginning, though — in addition to the guilty verdict, and the convictions on eight counts of violations of the Mann Act, (a sex trafficking law,) he also is still set to face child pornography and obstruction of justice charges in Chicago, his hometown, in a separate trial beginning in a month, on August 1.
U.S. Attorney Breon Peace issued a harsh statement, per MSN. “R. Kelly used his fame, fortune and enablers to prey on the young, the vulnerable and the voiceless for his own sexual gratification, while many turned a blind eye,” he said. “Through his actions, Kelly exhibited a callous disregard for the devastation his crimes had on his victims and has shown no remorse for his conduct.”
The “I Believe I Can Fly” songwriter was convicted by a federal jury in Brooklyn on Monday, September 27 of 2021 for the crimes. The jury, which was made up of seven men and five women, reportedly deliberated for about nine hours over the past two days before reaching a unanimous decision.
Since the middle of August 2021, Kelly’s reported inappropriate relationships with women, specifically underage women, have been explored and argued in criminal trial. On Sept. 13, Kelly’s longtime executive assistant Diana Copeland, testified against Kelly, while dropping some bombshells of her own. On Friday, September 17, she revealed more in her first public interview on Good Morning America.
“[I] Never witnessed something under … around underage women,” Copeland told Michael Strahan in an exclusive interview. Her statement echoes what she said in court earlier in the week, insisting she never any of the alleged abuse, including kidnapping and sexual assault, that other witnesses have described, according to the New York Times. Still, she admits there could be a good reason for that. “Now, I did come and go, so I mean, I want to make sure that I am clear that my experience does not negate anybody else’s experience.”
Copeland, who worked for Kelly on and off for 16 years, said that working with him was ‘incredible’ at the start of his career, she admitted things did become strange, especially when he started living with multiple girlfriends. While she insists that all the women in the house were over 18, she admitted that Kelly kept restrictive rules for his girlfriends, like keeping them away from other men.
“They asked me during the trial, ‘Did you notice their reaction with males?’ And I did,” Copeland said. “They didn’t want to speak to the males. In fact, sometimes they would ask me to interact with the males.”
The singer appeared in a Brooklyn courthouse on Wednesday, August 18 2021 for the start of the high-profile trial, which is likely to last between six and eight week, according to CNN. R. Kelly, real name Robert Sylvester Kelly, is facing multiple allegations of sexually abusing several women and underage girls and boys over the last decades, but he has denied any wrongdoing and has pled not guilty to the charges of racketeering, bribery, coercion, enticement and sex trafficking. He’s been in federal custody since his arrest in July 2019.
Below, HollywoodLife has rounded up what transpired during the opening day in court of R. Kelly’s 2021 trial, including the jury selection and opening statements from the prosecution and defense. Plus, learn about the specific charges the rapper is facing and a history of his criminal past.
Opening Statements
Opening statements for R. Kelly’s trial were delivered on Wednesday to the jury of 12 at a Brooklyn courthouse. The prosecution spoke before the defense, and assistant U.S. Attorney Maria Cruz Melendez accused the singer of being “a predator” in her scathing statement. “This case is about a predator who for decades used fame, popularity and a network of associates to groom girls, boys and young women for his own sexual purposes,” Cruz Melendez said, NBC News reported.
Cruz Melendez also reportedly accused R. Kelly of using his money and celebrity status to “hide his crimes in plain sight.” She also claimed that he used bodyguards, drivers runners, lawyers, and accountants to cover up his alleged crimes, and even allegedly bribed his victims by photographing and filming them having sex and then threatening to release the tapes, according to BBC News.
During Cruz Melendez’s statement, R. Kelly was dressed in a gray suit, purple tie, and glasses as he sat silently with his head down at times, according to reports. His defense team, led by lawyer Nicole Blank Becker, told jurors that charges against R. Kelly were told jurors that many of the charges against him are “overreaching” and that many of the relationships he had with the alleged victims were in fact consensual, and not abuse.
“These women, these witnesses who take the stand – he didn’t recruit them,” Becker said in her opening statements. per CNN. “Ladies and gentlemen, you will hear that they were fans, that they came to Mr. Kelly,” she added. Becker also said told the jury they would hear during the trial that “some of these relationships” that R. Kelly had with the alleged victims “were beautiful.” She continued, “They knew exactly what they were getting into and it was no secret that Mr. Kelly had multiple girlfriends.”
New Jurors Sworn In
A 12-person panel was anonymously selected as the jury for R. Kelly’s trial. The 12 individuals, seven men and five women, were sworn in by U.S. District Judge Ann M. Donnelly on Wednesday. There are also six alternate jurors, according to Page Six.
The jurors all sat in the courthouse and witnessed the opening statements of the trial. They will reportedly remain anonymous and will be partially sequestered throughout the ongoing trial, reports state.
The Charges
R. Kelly is facing charges of racketeering, bribery, coercion, enticement and sex trafficking across several states. In Illinois, he’s been hit with 10 counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse over incidents that allegedly took place between 1998 and 2010 and involved four victims, three of whom were underage. Each of those counts carries a sentence of three to seven years, according to the Washington Post.
In New York, the “I Believe I Can Fly” singer is facing a five-count indictment of allegedly leading a racketeering enterprise for two decades. He’s also been hit with five more indictments of racketeering and four indictments related to violations of the Mann Act, per reports. Those indictments have not yet resulted in any additional charges.
R. Kelly is also facing sex-related charges in Minnesota, which, like his other alleged crimes, he has plead not guilty to. Also in his current trial, the singer is facing allegations that he and others conspired to create a fake ID for late R&B singer Aaliyah so that they could secretly marry in 1994 when she was only 15 years old. R. Kelly is being accused of abusing Aaliyah while they were married, before she died in Aug. 2001 at age 22 in a plane crash.
All of these charges against the Grammy winner were explored in the 2019 Lifetime documentary Surviving R. Kelly, which featured testimonies from some of his alleged accusers.
R. Kelly’s Criminal Past
R. Kelly has a lengthy criminal history. In fact, he was previously on trial for 13 counts of child pornography, but was acquitted of those charges in 2008 when he was 41 years old. The accusations of sexual abuse and misconduct against R. Kelly date all the way back to 1998, when he settled a lawsuit with an underage girl whom claimed the singer induced her to have group sex with other teenage girls. A few years later, R. Kelly was hit with the child pornography charges, followed by allegations of running a sex cult in 2017.
R. Kelly has maintained his innocence throughout his legal troubles. Following the airing of Surviving R. Kelly, he said in a March 2019 interview with CBS This Morning’s Gayle King, “I didn’t do this stuff! This is not me. I am fighting for my f***ing life!”
