R&B singer R. Kelly was sentenced to 20 years in prison in a Chicago federal courtroom on Thursday following his conviction last year on charges of child pornography and enticement of a minor.
Kelly, is already serving a 30-year prison term for his 2021 conviction on racketeering and sex trafficking charges in a New York federal court, reported CNN.
US District Judge Harry D. Leinenweber said in court on Thursday that 19 years of the 20-year prison sentence would be served concurrently, or at the same time as his other sentence. One year would be served consecutively, or after that sentence is complete, he said.
Kelly was convicted in September on three counts of production of child pornography and three counts of enticement of a minor to engage in criminal sexual activity. An appeal for a new trial was denied last week.
According to CNN, prior to the sentence, attorney Christopher Brown read from a statement given by one of Kelly's victims, identified as "Jane." "I have lost my dignity due to Robert Kelly. I have lost my dreams due to Robert Kelly. I have lost my teenage years to Robert Kelly," he read.
She wrote that Kelly was "abusive and dominating" and made her suicidal. "I will forever be the girl that R Kelly peed on," Jane said through the attorney, referencing the infamous sex tape video shown during his trial which showed Kelly urinating on a victim.
The sentencing hearing is the culmination of nearly three decades of allegations Kelly had sexually abused underage girls, accusations first laid out in the Chicago Sun-Times. In 2002, Kelly was indicted on child pornography charges for allegedly videotaping himself having sex with an unidentified underage girl, but he was acquitted in 2008, reported CNN.
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