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Kelly, 55, was found guilty on three counts of child pornography and three counts of child enticement but was acquitted of a fourth pornography count, as well as a conspiracy to obstruct justice charge accusing him of fixing his state child pornography trial in 2008.
Kelly was also found not guilty on all three counts of conspiring to receive child pornography and for two further enticement charges.
His two co-defendants, associates Derrel McDavid and Milton Brown, were found not guilty on all charges. Jurors acquitted McDavid, a longtime Kelly business manager, who was accused of conspiring with Kelly to rig the 2008 trial. Brown, a Kelly associate for years, was acquitted of receiving child pornography.
The decision comes after a federal judge in New York sentenced Kelly to 30 years in prison in June for racketeering and sex trafficking. Based on that sentence, he won’t be eligible for release until he is around 80.
The legal challenges for Kelly are not yet over. Two further trials are pending; one in Minnesota and another in state court in Chicago.
The verdict followed a four-week trial and jurors delibated for 11 hours over two days. Kelly faced 13 charges, filed in 2019, including producing child pornography, enticing a minor to engage in criminal sexual activity, and conspiracy to obstruct justice.
In Chicago, a conviction of just one count of child pornography carries a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years, while receipt of child pornography carries a mandatory minimum of five years. Judges can order that defendants sentenced earlier in separate cases serve their new sentence simultaneously with or only after the first term is fully served. Federal inmates must serve at least 85% of their sentences.
Kelly’s first trial was in the Eastern District of New York in Brooklyn in the summer of 2021. After six weeks of graphic testimony from dozens of accusers and witnesses, a jury deliberated two days before finding Kelly guilty on all nine counts of sex trafficking and racketeering. He was sentenced to 30 years in prison on June 29, 2022.
Before beginning his New York sentence, he had to face this second trial, in the Northern District of Illinois in Chicago. He’s been in the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Chicago where he has spent most of his time since his arrest in 2019.
Prosecutors rested their case on Aug. 30 after presenting two weeks of testimony, including from four Kelly accusers, in their effort to prove the singer enticed underage girls for sex, produced child pornography and successfully rigged his 2008 state trial.
