Singer R Kelly Will get New 20-12 months Jail Time period For Youngster Pornography Crimes

R Kelly, 56, is already serving a 30-year sentence. (File)

New York:

A US choose on Thursday handed disgraced R&B singer R Kelly a 20-year jail time period for baby pornography and different expenses — however he’ll serve most of it concurrently with a earlier sentence.

Kelly, 56, is already serving a 30-year sentence he obtained after a Brooklyn jury in a separate federal trial convicted him on racketeering and intercourse trafficking expenses.

The choose in Chicago — Kelly’s hometown, the place he was as soon as seen as a supply of delight — dominated that many of the new sentence could be served concurrently with the earlier one, with all however one yr taken on the identical time.

That Kelly will spend a most of 31 years in jail is a win for the protection, which urged in its sentencing memorandum that “a concurrent sentence is what equity calls for,” accusing the prosecution of partaking in a “quest to make sure that Kelly by no means sees the sunshine of day.”

His lawyer, Jennifer Bonjean, is interesting each of Kelly’s federal convictions.

The artist born Robert Sylvester Kelly was convicted in September 2022 on six of 13 counts alleged within the Chicago trial: three counts of manufacturing baby pornography and three of enticement of a minor.

The singer recognized for hits together with “I Imagine I Can Fly” was acquitted by a federal jury of the seven different counts, together with expenses that he obstructed justice in a earlier trial.

Kelly and two ex-associates had been accused of rigging the singer’s 2008 baby pornography proceedings during which a jury delivered a verdict of not responsible.

The federal conviction in Chicago got here one yr after Kelly was convicted in New York of systematically recruiting youngsters and girls for intercourse.

That verdict was broadly seen as a milestone for the #MeToo motion: it was the primary main intercourse abuse trial the place nearly all of the accusers have been Black ladies.

It was additionally the primary time Kelly confronted felony penalties for the abuse he was rumored for many years to have inflicted on ladies and kids.

(Aside from the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV employees and is printed from a syndicated feed.)