R. Kelly
The latest updates and coverage of Robert Sylvester Kelly, the entertainer known as R. Kelly, as he faces felony charges that include sexual abuse, child pornography and racketeering.
The singer’s lawyers say a woman who testified against him in 2022 only did so after threats and promises were made by federal prosecutors. The woman had declined to testify in a separate trial in 2008.
U.S. District Judge Martha Pacold denied the singer’s request amid what he claims is a plot by prison officials to have him killed. The singer’s lawyers have insisted their legal fight is not over.
Not due for freedom until December 2045, Kelly claims that prison officials enlisted a leader of the Aryan Brotherhood to assassinate him.
Kelly, 58, is being held in a medium-security prison facility in Butner, North Carolina, records show. He’s serving a 30-year sentence there for his 2021 racketeering and sex-crime convictions in New York.
Kelly’s lawyers say in a motion that prison officials hatched a plot to get an inmate to kill him. The filing is the latest bid to undo his 30-year sentence for sex crimes and racketeering.
The Grammy-winning, multiplatinum-selling songwriter was convicted in 2021 in Brooklyn federal court of multiple charges, including racketeering and sex trafficking.
The justices did not detail their reasoning in declining to hear the case, as is typical.
U.S. District Court Judge Harry Leinenweber, who died Tuesday, taught a one-man master class in life. A man of reason, a man in full, a husband, a father, a grandfather, a great-grandfather. A golfer, a raconteur, an intellectual who loved people, a teller of tall — but true — tales.
U.S. District Judge Harry Leinenweber took senior status in 2002, but he continued to preside over blockbuster trials 20 years later. They included the trial of former R&B star R. Kelly in 2022 and a major corruption trial involving four political insiders tied to ComEd. “He was an honorable judge and an honorable man,” said Kelly attorney Jennifer Bonjean.
The former R&B star is being held in a medium-security prison in North Carolina, records show. He is not due to be released until December 2045.
A federal jury in Chicago convicted Kelly in 2022 of producing child pornography and enticing minors into criminal sexual activity. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison in February 2023.
Kelly is being held at a medium-security prison in North Carolina, records show. He is serving a decadeslong sentence for sex crimes.
Kelly had faced charges that he invited a 17-year-old girl to his hotel room in 2001 and paid her $200 to dance naked with him.
The Grammy-winning artist, who once won hearts around the world with his “I Believe I Can Fly” anthem in the 1990s, remains on track to leave prison in the 2040s when he’s in his late 70s.
Kelly is already serving a 30-year sentence for a federal racketeering conviction in New York. So the crucial question Thursday will be whether U.S. District Judge Harry Leinenweber feels the need to punish Kelly further.
Prosecutors have asked a federal judge to sentence Kelly, 56, to a quarter-century in prison as a result of his conviction in Chicago last summer. They said Kelly should not begin serving that sentence until after he has finished serving a 30-year federal prison sentence for racketeering.
Kelly’s defense attorneys claimed a key witness against him lied when she said she was “undecided” about whether she would seek restitution from the singer if he was convicted.
Kelly is set to be sentenced in Chicago on Feb. 23. But the big question is whether the judge adds to the 30-year sentence Kelly is already serving for his racketeering conviction in New York. That sentence is likely to keep Kelly behind bars until his late 70s.
“Jane’s testimony was not truthful when she claimed she was ‘undecided’ about whether she would seek restitution from the Defendant,” the motions states.
“I pleaded with Kim Foxx and her team to see the cases through,” said Lanita Carter. “Justice has been denied for me.”