Singer R. Kelly was sentenced to an additional 20 years in prison on Thursday, Feb. 23, 2023, for crimes he was convicted of in September 2021, according to Yahoo! News.
Sentencing was announced after R. Kelly — whose real name is Robert Sylvester Kelly — was found guilty of six out of 13 charges, including three counts of coercing minors into illegal sexual activity as well as three counts of creating pornography that showed him abusing a minor.
The Grammy Award winner is already serving 30 years in prison for racketeering and sex trafficking.
The sentence won’t be served consecutively though, despite federal prosecutors asking for a sentence of 25 years, and Kelly’s lawyer, Jennifer Bonjean, asking for 10 years given that he is “likely to die in prison either way.”
U.S. District Judge Harry Leinenweber settled on 19 years to be served concurrently with his existing sentence, meaning he will only serve a single extra year behind bars.
According to NBC News, the judge said he believed “sentencing should be sufficient but not greater than necessary,” adding that “everybody agrees that the nature of this offense is horrible, horrific.”
“One of the things we should bear in mind, he is 56 years old and as Ms. Bonjean points out, he has a life expectancy of not a helluva lot more,” the judge added.
Kelly’s victims submitted statements about the crimes, with one saying she has lost her “dignity” and “dreams.”
Another said that the 56-year-old “completely damaged” her.
A third woman said she needed years of therapy and has even had “dark thoughts of suicide” and “dark thoughts about no one loving” her.
This isn’t the first time Kelly’s age was used as a reason to avoid adding years to the singer’s sentence. In late January 2023, Illinois District Attorney Kim Foxx decided to drop all state charges against him because “Mr. Kelly is looking at the possibility of never walking out of prison again,” she said.
Foxx is the same attorney who handled the Jussie Smollett fake hate crime case.
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