R. Kelly Sentenced To 30 Years In Prison, Where He’ll Likely Die
He was convicted on nine sex trafficking charges under the Mann Act last year, and today a judge sentenced R. Kelly to 30 years in prison for his horrific sexual abuse of multiple children. Because the “I Believe I Can Fly” singer is 55 years old and there’s no parole for federal prisoners, Kelly will either die in prison, or he’ll be released when he’s 85. Via NBC:
R. Kelly, the disgraced R&B superstar, was sentenced Wednesday to 30 years in prison, months after he was convicted on all nine counts against him in a high-profile sex trafficking case.
U.S. District Court Judge Ann Donnelly handed down the sentence in a Brooklyn courtroom after several of Kelly’s victims angrily addressed the convicted sex offender at the hearing.
“You degraded me, humiliated me and broke my spirit,” said a woman, who went by Jane Doe No. 2. “I wished I would die because of how you degraded me.”
The victim recalled an incident when she was forced to perform oral sex on the music star “after you played basketball, in a car full of your friends.”
Kelly, 55, was convicted in September of racketeering and violating the Mann Act, the law that bans transporting people across state lines “for any immoral purpose.”
[NBC]
Kelly still faces a separate trial that’s scheduled to begin in August in Chicago, where he’s charged with child porn and obstruction of justice.
