NEW YORK — (09-27-21) — Grammy Award Winner R. Kelly was found guilty on all counts by a federal jury on Monday in his trial for sex trafficking and racketeering.
The 54-year-old multi-award winning music artist whose real name is Robert Sylvester Kelly, was convicted on nine counts that included racketeering, kidnapping, forced labor, sexual exploitation of a child, bribery, and trafficking.
Prosecutors put forth Forty-five witnesses to testify over the course of the trial, including six who testified that they were underage when Kelly began engaging in sexual encounters with them.
“He’s not a genius,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Nadia Shihata told jurors during closing arguments in the case, which was heard in the Eastern District of New York. “He’s a criminal. A predator.”
CBS News Special Coverage of R. Kelly’s Conviction
The verdict came after the jury spent nine hours deliberating. R. Kelly is facing 10 years to life in prison when a judge hands down his sentence on May 4, 2022. Kelly’s legal team told reporters they were considering an appeal.
Kelly, is still battling the criminal charges in his indictment by a grand jury in Chicago back in July 2019. He is still facing charges in that city of aggravated criminal sexual abuse that involved four victims, three of whom were underage, along with charges related to child pornography and obstructing investigators.
He was also charged in Minnesota back in August 2019 with engaging in prostitution with a minor, but failed to show up to his court date. That case is unlikely to be resolved until legal proceedings wrap up in Illinois.
Article by: Paul Goldberg, Staff Writer
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