A federal judge in Chicago, the United States on Thursday sentenced American R&B singer, R. Kelly to 20 years in prison for child sex crimes.
His most recent sentence was given to him after a jury found that he had three recordings of himself sexually abusing his 14-year-old goddaughter
According to the New York Times, the judge decided that all but one year of R. Kelly’s prison term would be served concurrently with a 30-year sentence that he had previously received after a Brooklyn jury found him guilty of racketeering and sex trafficking.
The Chicago jury found him guilty of six of the thirteen charges brought against him in connection with sexual exploitation during the 1990s, including three counts of coercing kids into having sex and three counts of making sex recordings with minors.
R. Kelly was acquitted of a charge that he had attempted to impede an earlier investigation into his abuse of the goddaughter, and two other counts of enticing minors to have sex.
Federal prosecutors had argued that the 56-year-old deserved 25 years imprisonment in addition to his earlier sentence, citing the singer’s “lack of remorse” as a reason he would pose a danger to society if released.
“The only way to ensure he will not re-offend is to impose a sentence that will keep him in prison for the rest of his life,” Jeannice Williams Appenteng, one of the prosecutors, said in court on Thursday.
One of R. Kelly’s lawyers, Jennifer Bonjean, argued that her client was “likely to die in prison either way,” but that if he did not, he would not pose a threat in old age.
Judge Harry D. Leinenweber agreed, saying in court that he did not think the singer would be likely to commit the same kind of crimes in his 80s. The judge acknowledged that he would have dealt a heavier sentence if the Chicago trial had come first.
