The singer is charged with fixing his 2008 state baby pornography trial by threatening witnesses and concealing video proof.
CHICAGO — Jurors have been set to start deliberating for a second day Wednesday at R. Kelly’s federal trial in Chicago, sorting by a month of proof and arguments on charges accusing the singer of manufacturing baby pornography, engaging minors for intercourse and rigging his 2008 baby porn trial.
Jurors should think about 13 separate counts, some involving advanced regulation and assessments of which witnesses have been extra plausible. They started deliberating Tuesday after Judge Harry Leinenweber gave them jury directions, together with specific descriptions of what constitutes sexual abuse.
Before they withdrew Tuesday, Kelly lawyer Jennifer Bonjean sounded indignant, likening authorities testimony and evidence to a cockroach and the federal government’s case to a bowl of soup.
If a cockroach falls into soup, she stated, “you don’t just pull out the cockroach and eat the rest of the soup. You throw out the whole soup,” said told jurors. She said of the prosecution’s case: “There are just too many cockroaches.”
Kelly, 55, was sentenced in June to 30 years in prison during a separate federal trial in New York the place he was convicted of racketeering and intercourse trafficking.
In her rebuttal Tuesday, prosecutor Jeannice Appenteng advised jurors to recollect the women and girls Kelly allegedly abused.
“When you are in the quiet of the jury room, consider the evidence in light of who is at the center of this case. Kelly’s victims: Jane, Nia, Pauline, Tracy and Brittany,” Appenteng stated, referring to 5 Kelly accusers named in charging paperwork by their pseudonyms or first names.
She stated as Kelly’s fame boomed within the mid-Nineties, his internal circle more and more geared every thing they did to what Kelly needed.
“And ladies and gentlemen, what R. Kelly wanted was to have sex with young girls,” she stated.
Bonjean described Kelly as a flawed genius who has been useful illiterate since childhood and was ill-equipped to navigate his celeb and increasing wealth. She stated having been abused as a toddler additionally deeply affected him.
Known for his smash hit “I Believe I Can Fly” and for sex-infused songs reminiscent of “Bump n’ Grind,” Kelly offered hundreds of thousands of albums even after allegations of sexual misconduct circulated within the Nineties. Widespread outrage emerged after the #MeToo reckoning and the 2019 Lifetime docuseries “Surviving R. Kelly.”
MORE: R. Kelly sentenced to 30 years in intercourse trafficking case
Kelly and co-defendant Derrell McDavid, Kelly’s ex-business supervisor, are accused of fixing Kelly’s 2008 trial on state baby porn charges by intimidating and paying off witnesses.
Kelly faces 4 counts of manufacturing baby porn, one in all conspiring to impede justice by fixing the 2008 trial, one in all conspiring to obtain baby porn, two of really receiving it and 5 of engaging minors for intercourse.
McDavid is charged with 4 counts — two for receiving baby porn, one for conspiring to take action and one for conspiring to impede justice by rigging the 2008 trial, at which Kelly was acquitted.
Co-defendant Milton Brown, a former Kelly affiliate, faces a single rely of conspiring to obtain baby pornography.
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