R. Kelly sentenced to 30 years in prison for sex trafficking
Antonio Perez/Chicago Tribune via AP Photo
R&B singer R. Kelly, 55, has been sentenced to 30 years in prison for decades of sexually abusing minors and women.
R. Kelly, whose real name is Robert Sylvester Kelly, was convicted last year of racketeering and sex trafficking at a trial that allowed victims, who had once wondered if their stories were being ignored because they were Black women, finally be heard.
Before Kelly was sentenced, U.S. District Judge Ann Donnelly allowed a group of survivors including Angela, who testified during his trial, a chance to read victim impact statements.
"You used your fame and power to groom and coach underage boys and girls for your own sexual gratification," she said while staring at Kelly, according to The New York Times. "We are no longer the preyed-upon individuals we once were."
Jovante Cunningham, a former Kelly backup dancer, said “I’m grateful for today and grateful is away and will stay away and not harm anyone else. I’m proud of the system. Thirty years he did this and 30 years is what he got.”
Lizzette Martinez, who met Kelly when she was 17, said that there were "so many things he could have done to stop himself. She told BBC News that “he had all the resources; we don't have resources like that. He could have gotten help.” She said he avoided justice for years due to the "power of celebrity".
Kelly did not address the court the entire time.
However, Kelly's lawyer, Jennifer Bonjean, commented that "[Kelly] accepts that he is a flawed individual, but he is not this one-dimensional monster that the government has portrayed and the media has portrayed."
In an indictment following his 2019 arrest, prosecutors alleged Kelly and his team (which included managers, bodyguards, and assistants) would travel to perform at concert venues and to recruit women and girls to engage in illegal sexual activity with Kelly.
According to the indictment, the singer required his victims to follow "numerous rules" in which they "were not permitted to leave their room without receiving permission, including to eat or go to the bathroom," were "not permitted to look at other men" and "were required to call Kelly 'Daddy.'"
The court also heard how Kelly had illegally obtained paperwork to marry singer Aaliyah when she was 15 in 1994, seven years before the singer tragically died in a plane crash.
Kelly has been in custody in New York and Chicago in July 2019 since he was indicted by federal prosecutors. His three years behind bars have been eventful. He reportedly received a beating from a fellow inmate in 2020 and was extremely ill from Covid-19 earlier this year.
The singer faces further legal action in August, when he goes on trial again, this time in Chicago on child sex images and obstruction charges.
He is also due to face sex abuse charges in courts in Illinois and Minnesota.
