R&B superstar R. Kelly was sentenced to 30 years in prison on Wednesday for using his celebrity to sexually abuse young fans, including some as young as children, in a decades-long scheme.
Several of Kelly’s accusers, in tears and rage, told a New York City court, as well as the singer himself, that he had misled and preyed on them.
“You forced me to do things that crushed my spirit. “I literally wished I died because of how low you made me feel,” one unnamed survivor said directly to Kelly, who kept his hands folded and his eyes downcast.
“Do you recall that?” she inquired.
Kelly, 55, did not make a statement and showed no emotion after hearing his sentence, which included a $100,000 fine. He has denied any wrongdoing and intends to challenge his conviction.
The Grammy-winning, multiplatinum-selling songwriter was convicted of racketeering and sex trafficking last year in a trial that gave voice to accusers who previously wondered if their stories were being ignored because they were Black women.
At the sentencing, another of his accusers stated that victims “are no longer the preyed-on individuals we once were.”
“There hasn’t been a single day in my life that I haven’t believed that the judicial system would come through for Black and brown girls,” she said outside court.
A third woman, sobbing and sniffling in court, said Kelly’s conviction restored her faith in the legal system.
The woman claimed Kelly victimized her after she attended a concert when she was 17 years old.
“I was afraid, naive, and unsure how to handle the situation,” she explained, explaining why she didn’t speak up at the time.
“Silence is a very lonely place,” she said.
Jennifer Bonjean, Kelly’s lawyer, said he was “devastated” by the sentence and saddened by what he had heard.
“He is a person.” He understands how others are feeling. But that doesn’t mean he can accept responsibility in the way that the government and other people expect him to.” Because he disagrees with the portrayals of him that have been made,” she explained.
The sentence concludes Kelly’s slow-motion fall, which includes the 1996 hit “I Believe I Can Fly” and the cult classic “Trapped in the Closet,” a multipart tale of sexual betrayal and intrigue.
Even after allegations of sexual abuse of young girls surfaced publicly in the 1990s, he was adored by legions of fans and sold millions of albums. In 2008, he was acquitted of child pornography charges in Chicago by a jury.
Widespread outrage over Kelly’s sexual misconduct did not emerge until the #MeToo reckoning, when the documentary “Surviving R. Kelly” was released.
“I hope this sentencing serves as its own testimony that no matter how powerful, wealthy, or famous your abuser is, or how small they make you feel — justice only hears the truth,” Brooklyn U.S. Attorney Breon Peace said on Wednesday.
A federal court jury in Brooklyn convicted the singer, born Robert Sylvester Kelly, after hearing that he used his entourage of managers and aides to meet girls and keep them obedient, an operation that prosecutors described as criminal.
Kelly, according to several accusers, subjected them to perverse and sadistic whims when they were underage.
The accusers claimed they were forced to sign nondisclosure agreements and faced threats and punishments such as violent spankings if they violated “Rob’s rules.”
Some claimed that the videotapes he made of them having sex would be used against them if they revealed what was going on.
Kelly, according to testimony, gave several accusers herpes without disclosing he had an STD, coerced a teenage boy to join him for sex with a naked girl who emerged from beneath a boxing ring in his garage and filmed a shaming video in which one victim was smeared with feces as punishment for breaking his rules.
“The horrors your victims endured,” US District Judge Ann Donnelly said as she handed down the sentence. “There was no price too high to pay for your happiness.”
Lizzette Martinez, a 17-year-old aspiring singer, met Kelly in a Florida shopping mall. She was promised mentorship but quickly became a “sex slave,” she said outside court on Wednesday.
Kelly paused before responding when asked if her 30-year sentence was sufficient punishment.
“I don’t think it’s enough for me,” she admitted, “but I’m pleased with it.”
Evidence was also presented at the trial about a fraudulent marriage scheme devised to protect Kelly after he suspected he had impregnated R&B phenom Aaliyah in 1994 when she was only 15 years old. They were married in matching jogging suits, according to witnesses, using a license that falsely listed her age as 18; he was 27 at the time.
Aaliyah collaborated with Kelly, who wrote and produced her debut album “Age Ain’t Nothing But A Number” in 1994. She was 22 years old when she died in a plane crash in 2001.
Kelly did not testify at his trial, but his former attorneys portrayed his accusers as girlfriends and groupies who were not forced to do anything against their will and stayed with him because they enjoyed the benefits of his lifestyle.
His current attorneys argued that he should be sentenced to no more than ten years in prison due to a traumatic childhood “involving severe, prolonged childhood sexual abuse, poverty, and violence.”
As an adult with “literacy deficiencies,” the star was “repeatedly defrauded and financially abused, frequently by people he paid to protect him,” according to his lawyers.
Unless someone comes forward publicly, such as Martinez, the Associated Press does not name people who claim to have been sexually assaulted or abused. Several of the women who spoke at Kelly’s sentencing were only identified by first names or pseudonyms.
Kelly has been imprisoned without bail since January 2019. He is still charged with child pornography and obstruction of justice in Chicago, where his trial is set to begin on August 15.
