A Federal Court in Chicago on Thursday sentenced the disgraced R&B Singer R. Kelly to 20 years in prison on charges of pornography and enticement of a minor. This sentence follows another lengthy conviction in 2021 when a New York court sentenced him to 30 years prison term for sex trafficking and racketeering. The federal judge, however, rejected the request from prosecutors to keep Kelly behind bars until he is 100.
One of the key questions leading into the trial was whether the Federal Court in Chicago will order the sentence separately to the 2021 New York court sentence for sex trafficking or simultaneously to the previous 30-year jail term.
The decision now means that Chicago-born Grammy Award-winning singer, Kelly, 54, will make it out of jail by age 80— not age 100 as prayed by prosecutors.
Prosecutors had asked for a separate 25-year sentence to be served after the 30 years previous sentence. “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 of Jane and other minor victims. To this day, and even following the jury verdict against him, Kelly refuses to accept responsibility for his crimes,” the prosecutors had stated at the court.
His attorney had, however, contested those claims stating, “In the unlikely event that Kelly was to survive his 30-year sentence, there is no reason to believe he would reoffend as a geriatric in his mid-80s. The overwhelming majority of Kelly’s criminal conduct was committed a quarter century ago.”
