For the past two weeks, R. Kelly has been on trial for child pornography charges in Chicago. Today, after two days of deliberation, the jury reached a verdict. Kelly was accused of 13 charges, including producing child pornography, enticing minors for sex, and obstructing justice his 2008 child pornography trial. He was found guilty, according to CBS Chicago, of six of the 13 counts.
R, Kelly guilty of counts 1-3, 9, 10, and 12. Not guilty on counts 4-8, 11, and 13.
Derrel McDavid not guilty on all counts (5-8)
Milton brown not guilty on all counts, Count 6.— CBS Chicago (@cbschicago) September 14, 2022
Ahead of the trial, Kelly made efforts to ban jurors who’d seen the Lifetime docuseries Surviving R. Kelly on the grounds that they’d be biased against him. After the judge dismissed his request, the trial proceeded in late August. Among the witnesses against Kelly were the now-37-year-old woman who featured in the leaked original sextape when she was just 14 years old. Testifying under a false name after being granted immunity for lying on the stand in the 2008 trial. “because I was afraid to expose Robert…,” she said, “I became exhausted with living with his lies.”
Another witness for the prosecution testified that he’d been offered a substantial reward to recover the leaked tape. He said that, in addition to receiving $100,000 plus expenses, it was suggested to him that he could earn up to $1 million to verify it was the original tape and no copies had been made. He also said he kept copies until as recently as 2019, but only turned them in after learning the police were investigating him “because the police wasn’t going to pay me a million dollars.”
Kelly was previously convicted of sex trafficking and racketeering charges in a separate, federal case in New York City. He was sentenced to 30 years in prison and sexual disorder treatment, and the judge ruled that his prison funds could be given to his victims.