Flying nowhere but prison: R. Kelly sentenced today to 30 years in jail in sex trafficking case

By Rubén Morales Iglesias: The ‘I Believe I Can Fly’ singer is flying nowhere but prison. On Wednesday, he was sentenced to 30 years in jail in the much-publicized sex trafficking case in the United States.

A Grammy-winning singer who reached the pinnacle of pop stardom in the 90’s was given a 30-year jail sentence for sexually abusing women and underage girls and boys over the course of decades, according to the New York Post.

Kelly did not say a word during the entire trial and today was no different as US District Judge Ann Donnelly gave her sentence after statements pronounced by seven victims during the hearing in a Brooklyn federal court.

According to the New York Post, 55-year-old Kelly was convicted on nine charges, including racketeering and sex trafficking.

“These victims were disposable to you and you taught them that love is enslavement and violence and humiliation,” said Judge Donnelly in handing judgement.

“This case is not about sex. It’s about violence and cruelty and control … these crimes were calculated and carefully planned and regularly executed for almost 25 years.”

The prosecutors who had painted a picture of Kelly as a serial predator who over several decades took advantage of his victims using his fame to do so had asked for a sentence longer than 25 years. And they got it.

“With today’s sentence he has finally and appropriately been held accountable for his decades of abuse, exploitation and degradation of teenagers and other vulnerable young people,” said Breon Peace, US Attorney for the Eastern District of New York.

Kelly’s lawyers seemed overmatched, reported TMZ, saying that the federal prosecutors called more witnesses than the defense who had only been able to get a few of ex-Kelly employees and associates to say, under oath, that they had never seen Kelly abuse anyone.

But the prosecutors were able to get dozens of witnesses with some saying Kelly “had managers, bodyguards and assistants who rounded up his potential victims before the singer groomed them for unwanted sex, among other things”, said TMZ.

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