Federal prosecutors want R&B singer and convicted sex offender, R. Kelly, to be imprisoned for more than 25 years.
The US Attorney’s Office, in a filing to the jury, backlashed the ‘I Believe I Can Fly’ singer for “relying on his fame, money and popularity as an R&B recording star… to both carry and conceal his crimes” as he got immense help from his large network of associates.
“He continued his crimes and avoided punishment for them for almost 30 years and must now be held to account,” part of the filling from the US Attorney read.
The US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York wrote to the jury on the case that “in light of the seriousness of the offenses, the need for specific deterrence and the need to protect the public from further crimes of the defendant … the government respectfully submits that a sentence in excess of 25 years is warranted“.
The 31-page filing delves into the “callous disregard” Kelly showed his victims during his decades of abuse and sexual exploitation, warning that Kelly “is unlikely to be deterred from further sexually abusing and exploiting children and others”.
During the trial, the government called 45 witnesses to detail the horrors Kelly, whose full name is Robert Kelly, subjected his victims to.
The feds noted if they get their wish, Kelly would be in his 70s when released from prison.
The feds also said the artist behind the hit song ‘Ignition’, has shown “no remorse for any of his conduct“.
“Indeed, the defendant’s decades of crime appear to have been fueled by narcissism and a belief that his musical talent absolved him of any need to conform his conduct — no matter how predatory, harmful, humiliating or abuse to other — to the strictures of the law”.
US Attorney’s office
What Kelly’s lawyers are saying
Meanwhile, a competing defense memo suggested the arguments for a higher sentence was inordinate, sine the claim that Kelly participated in the bribery of “a public aid officer to produce an identification card” that allowed the sham marriage to go forward is false.
Kelly’s lawyers also said it was wrong to assert he should get more time because he sexually abused one of his victims, referred to in court as ‘Jane’, after her parents innocently entrusted him to help her with her musical career.
“The record shows that Jane’s parents directed Jane to lie to the defendant about her age and then encouraged her to seduce him,” the papers read.
Kelly, who is scheduled to be sentenced June 29, 2022, was found guilty last year September for sexually abusing women, boys and girls for decades. He was convicted of all nine counts against him in the sex trafficking trial.
Kelly faces more criminal charges outside of New York. Minnesota state prosecutors charged him with engaging in prostitution with a minor and federal prosecutors in Illinois charged him for child pornography and obstruction.
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