It’s been revealed that former R&B singer R. Kelly has been sentenced to 20 years in prison. He was convicted of several sex crimes including several child pornography charges.
As part of the sentence, however, it’s been revealed that 19 of these years will be served concurrently with his existing prison time. This means that there will only be one additional year added to his previous 30 year New York prison sentence.
It’s been noted by ABC that “Kelly is already serving a 30-year prison sentence after he was convicted in a New York federal court last year of racketeering and violating the Mann Act, a sex trafficking law, including having sex with underage girls.”
His sentence could have been even longer:
“Prosecutors had recommended Kelly serve 25 years in prison, consecutively to his New York sentence, calling him a sexual predator who used his fame and wealth to abuse his victims, and has shown no remorse.”
Additionally, Kelly’s lawyer asked for a sentence of only 10 years to be served concurrently with the New York sentence. He believes that the abuse Kelly faced as a child justified leniency. The following was then alleged by prosecutors:
“In the late 1990s, Kelly engaged in sex acts with five victims while they were all under the age of 18 and created explicit videos with four of them.”
As for Kelly’s charges:
“A jury found Kelly guilty on three counts of child pornography and three counts of enticing a minor. He was acquitted of a conspiracy to obstruct justice charge accusing him of fixing the 2008 trial.”
It’s been revealed that Kelly’s legal team hopes to appeal the case. On that note, R. Kelly’s uncle Gregory Preston delivered the following statement to reporters:
“I’m just praying that everything will go well and that he will go free, because we all know that he’s innocent,” he stated.
As such, we’ll have to see how this situation will continue. For now, Bonjean noted that while the judge took Kelly’s age into account for the sentence, he’ll likely still die in prison while serving his current sentences.