By Safia Samee Ali and Selina Guevara -
NBC News
The musician R. Kelly was sentenced this Thursday to 20 years in prison for child pornography in a federal court in Chicago (Illinois).
The 56-year-old singer, whose legal name is Robert Sylvester Kelly, was already found guilty in 2021 by a jury in New York of organized crime and sex trafficking and sentenced to 30 years in prison.
The new 20-year sentence will be served at the same time except for one more year that will be added to his sentence, raising it to 31.
Kelly was sentenced last year to
six counts of sexual exploitation
and seduction of a minor in a case stemming from allegations by women who said he lured them into sexual acts when they were minors.
R. Kelly, center, leaves the Daley Center after a hearing in his child abuse case on May 8, 2019, in Chicago. Matt Marton / AP
Prosecutors asked the judge, Harry Leinenweber, to sentence him to 25 years in prison, calling him a
"sadist"
and "a
serial sexual predator"
who "represents a grave danger to society."
Kelly's lawyer requested a 10-year sentence to be served at the same time as the other sentence.
The judge said he believed "the sentence should be sufficient but not more than necessary," adding that "everyone agrees that the nature of this crime is horrific, horrifying."
In court papers filed before Thursday's hearing, prosecutors had said a sentence keeping Kelly jailed for life was "the only way to ensure Kelly doesn't reoffend."
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But his lawyer, Jennifer Bonjean, said he was already serving what was effectively a life sentence.
"Kelly would have to defy all statistical odds to get out of jail alive," Bonjean said in a brief filed with the court last week.
Kelly was facing 13 counts, including sexual exploitation of a minor, receiving child pornography, inciting a minor to engage in unlawful sexual conduct, conspiracy to obstruct justice and conspiracy to receive child pornography in the Illinois trial.
He was acquitted of seven charges, including all those related to the conspiracy.
The singer was tried alongside two co-defendants, his former manager Derrel McDavid and his partner Milton
June
Brown, who were found not guilty on all counts.
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Prosecutors centered their case around a star witness, identified at trial by the pseudonym Jane, who identified herself as the person on a 26-minute videotape sent anonymously to the Chicago Sun-Times in 2002 in which Kelly allegedly appeared performing sexual acts with a minor.
In emotional testimony, Jane, now 38, said the singer began having sex with her when she was 15 and he was in his 30s, and continued to do so "hundreds" of times before she was 18.
Several other alleged victims also testified that the singer prepared and manipulated them to have sexual relations, some of which were recorded, when they were minors.
Before sentencing was handed down, an attorney for Jane read her victim impact statement aloud in court.
“I have lost my dignity because of Robert Kelly,” the statement read.
"I have lost my dreams because of R. Kelly, I have lost my adolescence because of Robert Kelly."
He called for Kelly to be "imprisoned for the rest of his natural life."
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Last month, Cook County State's Attorney Kim Foxx dropped 10 state sexual assault charges against the singer, saying "justice has been served" with the two federal convictions.
She added that her office's “limited resources and court time” were the deciding factors, noting that she found the allegations credible.