US prosecutors ask judge to give R. Kelly 25 more years in prison for sex crimes: ‘Sadistic’ singer, 56, should be locked up for the rest of his life as he ‘poses a serious danger to society,’ court docs say
- Singer may face 25 years after the 30 years previously given in New York in 2021
- Lawyer seeks lesser sentence, saying white rock stars get away with same acts
Prosecutors have asked a judge to give singer R. Kelly 25 more years in prison for his convictions made last year in a Chicago trial.
The 2022 trial convicted Kelly for three child pornography charges and three charges of enticing a minor.
If granted, the 56-year old would not be eligible for release until he was around 100, having only recently begun serving a 30-year sentence from a separate verdict made in New York in 2021.
A government request has asked that Kelly begin serving the sentence made in Chicago after he has fully served the 30-year New York sentence.
In their sentencing recommendation filed on Thursday in US District Court in Chicago, prosecutors described Kelly’s behavior as ‘sadistic’, calling him ‘a serial sexual predator’ with no remorse and who ‘poses a serious danger to society’.
‘The only way to ensure Kelly does not reoffend is to impose a sentence that will keep him in prison for the rest of his life,’ the 37-page government filing says.
The sentencing in Chicago is set for Thursday next week.
R. Kelly turns to leave after appearing at a hearing at the Leighton Criminal Courthouse on September 17, 2019 in Chicago, Illinois
R. Kelly’s defense attorneys, Jennifer Bonjean, left, and Ashley Cohen, walk into the Dirksen Federal Courthouse in Chicago on 17 August 2022
Kelly lawyer’s Jennifer Bonjean wrote in a filing last week that even with his existing 30-year New York sentence, ‘Kelly would have to defy all statistical odds to make it out of prison alive’.
She cited data that the average life expectancy of inmates is 64.
She recommended a sentence of around 10 years, at the low end of the sentencing guidelines range, and said it should be served simultaneously with the New York sentence.
In arguing for the lesser sentence, Ms Bonjean alleged Kelly, who is black, was singled out for behavior that white rock stars have got away with for decades.
‘None have been prosecuted and none will die in prison,’ she wrote.
The singer spent six weeks on trials and was convicted in September 2021 of all nine counts of a superseding indictment which charged him with racketeering predicated on criminal conduct including the sexual exploitation, forced labor and Mann Act violations.
The Mann Act felonizes the use of interstate or foreign commerce to transport women for ‘immoral purposes’.
Bonjean said she would appeal the 30-year prison sentence reached in New York.
READ MORE: Chicago jury convicts R. Kelly of child pornography charges and coercing minors into sex acts
In the Chicago case, prosecutors acknowledged that a 25-year sentence would be more time than even sentencing guidelines recommend, but they argued that imposing a long sentence and instructing it be served only after the New York sentence was appropriate.
‘A consecutive sentence is eminently reasonable given the egregiousness of Kelly’s conduct,’ the filing argued. ‘Kelly’s sexual abuse of minors was intentional and prolific.’
At the trial in Chicago last year, jurors convicted the Grammy Award-winning singer on six of 13 counts, but the government lost the marquee count that Kelly and his then-business manager successfully rigged his state child pornography trial in 2008.
Both of Kelly’s co-defendants, including longtime business manager Derrel McDavid, were acquitted of all charges.
At the Chicago trial, four women testified to say that R. Kelly had sexually abused them while they were underage, including the woman who identified herself as the victim of sexual abuse in a videotape at the center of the singer’s 2008 trial.
In 2008, R. Kelly was accused of filming himself having sex with a 14-year-old girl when he was around age 30.
He was ultimately acquitted by the jury, who cited the girl’s lack of testimony.
The girl, under the pseudonym ‘Jane’, then became the key witness in the prosecutors’ case in Chicago, testifying that Kelly sexually abused her hundreds of times from 1998, when she was 14.
Prosecutor Assistant U.S. Attoreny Elizabeth Pozolo said Kelly ‘took advantage of Jane’s youth.
‘He repeatedly abused her. He performed degrading acts upon her for his own sick pleasure.’
The defense raised doubts about some accusers, saying at least one may have been at the state age of consent at the time.
Kelly did not take the stand.
The singer was ultimately found guilty of three counts of child pornography and three counts of child enticement after a four-week trial.
His legal team is also appealing the convictions made in Chicago.
Despite the trial in 2008, criminal investigations gained traction after the release of 2019 docuseries ‘Surviving R. Kelly’, which featured testimonials by his accusers.
The investigations led to federal and new state charges.
In January, an Illinois judge dismissed state sex abuse charges prior to a trial on the recommendation of Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx, who said she was comfortable dropping the case because Kelly would spend decades in prison for his federal convictions.
With the New York convictions alone, he would not have been eligible for release until he was around 80.
R. Kelly leaves the Daley Center after a hearing in his child support case, May 2019, in Chicago
In this courtroom sketch, R. Kelly and his attorney Jennifer Bonjean, left, appear during his sentencing hearing in federal court, Wednesday 29 June 2022, in New York
Prosecutors at Kelly’s federal trial in Chicago portrayed him as a master manipulator who used his fame and wealth to reel in starstruck fans to sexually abuse, in some cases to video them, and then discard them.
After deliberating over two days, jurors convicted Kelly of three counts each of producing child pornography and enticement of minors for sex, while acquitting him of obstruction of justice, production of child pornography and three counts of receiving child pornography.
Even if granted time off for good behavior, Kelly would be only be eligible for release if he served 25 years after the New York sentence in the year 2066, the government’s Thursday filing said.
It will be up to Judge Harry Leinenweber in Chicago to decide the crucial question of whether Kelly serves whatever sentence he imposes concurrently, simultaneously, with the New York sentence or consecutively.
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