A federal jury on Wednesday convicted R. Kelly of several child pornography and sex abuse charges in his hometown of Chicago.
55-year-old Kelly, who used to be one of the biggest R&B stars in the world, was found guilty of three counts of child pornography and three counts of child enticement.
However, the jury acquitted him on a fourth pornography count and a conspiracy to obstruct justice.
Kelly’s attorney said the mixed verdict showed government attorneys put on a case that was “overcharged.”
“They charged counts that they couldn’t win,” said attorney Jennifer Bonjean.
But, she praised the jury for their careful deliberations.
“They did their job and looked at each count separately,” Bonjean said. “Obviously we are not celebrating a win, but are happy the jury looked at each count.”
The attorney told reporters that Kelly’s legal team is considering an appeal but did not disclose details of the strategy.
“He’s still got many fights to fight,” she said.
U.S. Attorney John Lausch said praised the verdict.
“Mr. Kelly engaged in sex acts with multiple girls under the age of 18 and he recorded some of those sex acts on video,” Lausch said, according to CBS Chicago. “We are pleased with the fact that Robert Kelly is being held accountable for that reprehensible conduct.”
Kelly’s two co-defendants were found not guilty on all charges.
According to witnesses, Kelly was desperate to find child pornographic videos he made and carried around in a gym bag. They said he offered up to $1 million to recover the missing videos before his 2008 trial, knowing they would land him in legal peril.
Prosecutors said the conspiracy to hide his abuse ran from 2000 to 2020.
Four accusers testified, but the star witness was Jane, 37, who accused Kelly of using threats and payoffs to get her to lie to a grand jury before his 2008 trial and to make sure she and her parents wouldn’t testify.
A single video that shows Kelly abusing a girl of around 14 was the main point of that trial.
In August, Jane publicly said that the girl in the video was 14-year-old her and that the man was Kelly, who would have been around 30.
Some jurors in the 2008 trial said they had to acquit Kelly because the girl in the video didn’t testify. Jane said she lied to a state grand jury in 2002 when she said it was not her in the video, saying one of her reasons for lying was that she cared for Kelly.
Jane told jurors she was 15 when they first had intercourse and that it happened “uncountable times” before she turned 18.
Jane first met Kelly in the late 1990s when she was in junior high school. She said when her parents confronted Kelly in the early 2002s, he begged them for forgiveness. She said she urged her parents not to take action against Kelly because she loved him.
Another accuser, Pauline, said Jane introduced her to Kelly when they were 14 years old. At Kelly’s Chicago home later that year, Pauline described her shock to see Kelly and a naked Jane. She said Kelly told her that everyone has secrets. “This is our secret,” she testified he said.
