The singer, who is already serving 30 years in prison, was convicted last year on six counts of sexual exploitation and enticement of a minor.
CHICAGO — Disgraced musician R. Kelly was sentenced to one additional year in prison by an Illinois federal judge Thursday, nearly five months after he was convicted of sexual exploitation and enticement of a minor.
The sentence is to be served after the 30 years Kelly, 56, is serving after being found guilty of racketeering and sex trafficking by a New York jury in 2021.
Kelly, whose legal name is Robert Sylvester Kelly, was convicted last year on six counts of sexual exploitation and enticement of a minor in a case stemming from the complaints of women who said he lured them into sex acts while they were underage.
Federal prosecutors had asked U.S. District Judge Harry Leinenweber for the Northern District of Illinois to sentence Kelly to 25 years in prison, saying last week that the musician was “sadistic” and “a serial sexual predator” 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,” prosecutors said in a court filing that argued for his Illinois sentence and the New York sentence to run consecutively. “Kelly’s sexual abuse of minors was intentional and prolific.”
Kelly’s attorney requested a sentence of around 10 years and argued that it be served alongside the New York sentence. “Kelly would have to defy all statistical odds to make it out of prison alive,” Jennifer Bonjean said in a court filing last week. Kelly would be nearly 100 years old after serving both sentences, she wrote.
Kelly had faced 13 counts, including charges of sexual exploitation of a minor, receipt of child pornography, enticement of a minor to engage in unlawful sexual conduct, conspiring to obstruct justice and conspiring to receive child pornography in the Illinois trial. He was acquitted on seven counts, including all of the charges related to conspiracy.
The singer was tried alongside two co-defendants, his former business manager Derrel McDavid and his associate Milton “June” Brown, who were both found not guilty on all charges.
Prosecutors centered their case around a star witness, identified by the pseudonym Jane in court, who identified herself as the person in a 26-minute videotape sent anonymously to the Chicago Sun-Times in 2002 that allegedly showed Kelly performing sex acts with an underage girl.
In emotional testimony, Jane, now 38, said the singer began having sex with her when she was 15 and he was in his 30s and continued to do so “hundreds” of times before she turned 18.
Several other alleged victims also testified that the singer groomed and manipulated them into sexual relationships, some which were recorded, while they were underage.
Before the sentence was handed down, an attorney for Jane read her victim impact statement aloud in court.
“I have lost my dignity due to Robert Kelly,” the statement said. “I have lost my dreams due to R. Kelly, I have lost my teenage years due to Robert Kelly.”
She asked that Kelly be “put in jail for the rest of his natural born life.”
Last month, Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx dropped 10 state charges of sex abuse against the singer saying that “justice has been served” with the two federal convictions. She added that her office’s “limited resources and court time” were the ultimate factors, noting that it found the accusations to be credible.