Update: R. Kelly Found Guilty On Six Counts In Federal Child Pornography Trial

R. Kelly

Update: R. Kelly Found Guilty On Six Counts In Federal Child Pornography Trial

Update: R. Kelly was convicted on six of the 13 counts he faced in his Illinois federal child pornography trial.

According to reports, after 4 weeks of hearing witnesses speak, the jury — consisting of four white women, three Black women, three white men, and two Black men — started deliberating shortly after 1 p.m. on Tuesday (Sept. 13). Even though the singer was ultimately convicted on the child pornography counts he faced, he was acquitted on 7 other counts — including charges of conspiracy and enticement.

R. Kelly will be sentenced in this case at a later date. He was previously convicted of federal sex crimes in New York and sentenced to 30 years in prison.

Original Story: Three weeks into his federal trial in Chicago, R. Kelly told the judge that he will not be taking the stand to testify!

On Thursday (Sept. 1), R. Kelly, 55, was asked by U.S. District Judge Harry Leinenweber if he planned on answering questions under oath in front of the jury. Kelly told the judge,

“I’m not gonna testify.”

As you may already know, the disgraced singer is on trial on a 13-count indictment, including child pornography and obstruction of justice charges. His former business manager Derrel McDavid and former assistant Milton “June” Brown are being tried alongside him. They both are accused of scheming with R. Kelly to buy back incriminating sex tapes to help cover up his sex crimes and rig his 2008 child pornography trial in Cook County, in which Kelly was acquitted.

He also did not take the stand in his 2021 trial in New York where he was found guilty of sex trafficking and racketeering. Brown will also not take the stand at their federal trial in Chicago, although McDavid has chosen to testify in his own defense.

R.Kelly

Kelly’s defense team called their first five witnesses on Thursday after the judge rejected their motion for acquittal. As they started presenting their case, the defense team tried to question the validity of some of the stories brought by R. Kelly’s accusers during the trial.

Merry Green, who planned a 1999 expo at McCormick Place took the stand. That’s where one of Kelly’s accusers says she met the R&B singer. That accuser, testifying under the pseudonym “Tracy,” said that she was only 16 when they met, and soon began having sex, accusing the singer of sexually abusing her dozens of times.

However, Green testified under oath that she was never made aware of R. Kelly’s attendance at the expo where Tracy claimed she met him, and she would have been aware of an R&B star of that magnitude. Green testified that he appeared at the expo in the year 2000 when Tracy would have been 17.

Reportedly, the witness who spent the longest amount of time on the stand was audio engineer Tom Arnold. He worked for R. Kelly for about eight years starting in 2003, and before that worked at Chicago Trax studios, while Kelly was recording music there. Arnold said it was very normal for him to cash checks at a bank and handle large amounts of cash for Kelly. He said the largest sum was approximately $125,000 dollars in cash.

He also testified he drove people for Kelly and that it was “common knowledge” drivers were not supposed to talk to the singers’ female “guests.”

Ronald Winters took the stand after Arnold. He worked as a personal assistant to R. Kelly’s criminal defense attorney in his Cook County case in the 2000s. Winters said he viewed multiple VHS tapes of Kelly having sex with different women, but Winters said none of them appeared to be underage. Winters thought one of the tapes showed Kelly’s then-wife, not an underage girl as prosecutors have argued.

The judge said they expect to finish the case next week “without fail.”

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