By Kudumo Bernhold
FORMER R&B singer Robert Sylvester Kelly or famously known by his stage R.Kelly was sentenced to 30 years in prison on Wednesday 29 June 2022 in a New York federal court.
The disgraced musician was sentenced by U.S District Judge Ann Donnelly after she had found him guilty following testimony from Kelly’s victims.
The judge also ordered him to pay an equivalent amount of a $100 000 fine. The Judge told the Grammy-award singer “although sex was a weapon that you used, this is not a case about sex but a case more about violence, cruelty, and control”.
The singer was convicted of federal sex trafficking and racketeering in September of last year.
One of his victims said the Grammy award winner, known for the 1996 hit “I believe I can fly”, manipulated fans into believing that he was someone other than the man the jury saw and another said the verdict had restored her faith in the justice system.
The emotional sentencing hearing came more than nine months after a federal jury in New York convicted the singer on nine counts, including sex trafficking and racketeering, to coerce women, as well as underage girls and boys, into sex.
The racketeering charge came from the singer using his celebrity status to procure, then mentally and sexually abuse girls and young women. The operation involving a network of managers who helped Kelly meet girls and keep the girls quiet amounted to a criminal enterprise.
After the sentence, the singer was put on a suicide watch, said his lawyer.
