R. Kelly was sentenced Thursday in Chicago to 20 years in prison for his conviction on child pornography and enticement of minors for sex charges.
He’ll serve 19 of those years concurrently with his current 30-year sentence from last year’s New York trial.
Prosecutors had recommended Judge Harry Leinenwebe give the disgraced R&B singer a 25-year sentence beginning after his current term, while Kelly’s defense team pushed for him to get a 10-year penalty that he could serve concurrently.
The Chicago-born Kelly, 56, was convicted on three counts of child pornography and three counts of enticement of minors for sex after a month-long federal trial in Chicago, during which four accusers testified.
Kelly, whose full name is Robert Kelly wasn’t convicted last year of an obstruction of justice charge that accused him of rigging his 2008 child pornography trial, which ended in his acquittal.
The 2008 trial largely centered on a video that prosecutors claimed to show Kelly, then around 30, abusing a 14-year-old girl, who didn’t testify at the time.
The accuser, now in her 30s, testified last year under the pseudonym Jane and claimed to be the girl in the video. Four of the charges that Kelly was convicted of related to Jane.
“I have lost my dreams to Robert Kelly. I will never get back what I lost to Robert Kelly. … I have been permanently scarred by Robert,” Jane said in a statement read during Thursday’s sentencing hearing.
“When your virginity is taken by a pedophile at 14 … your life is never your own.”
The Chicago trial ended less than three months after Kelly was sentenced to 30 years after being found guilty of racketeering and sex trafficking in the New York trial.
Kelly, whose hits include “I Believe I Can Fly” and “Ignition,” has long denied allegations of sexual misconduct involving minors. The allegations received renewed attention with the release of the 2019 documentary “Surviving R. Kelly,” which featured accusers sharing their accounts.