A federal judge in Chicago, the United States, on Thursday sentenced American R&B singer R. Kelly to 20 years in prison for child sex crimes.
The latest judgment was handed to him after a jury found that he had produced three videos of himself sexually abusing his 14-year-old goddaughter.
According to the New York Times, the judge ruled that all but one year of the prison sentence would be served at the same time as a previous 30-year sentence that R. Kelly received after a Brooklyn jury convicted him of racketeering and sex trafficking charges.
The jury in Chicago convicted him of six of the 13 charges brought against him in connection with sexual exploitation during the 1990s, including counts of forcing three minors into sexual activity and three of producing sex tapes involving a minor.
R. Kelly was acquitted of a charge that he had attempted to impede an earlier investigation into his abuse of the goddaughter and two other counts of enticing minors to have sex.
Federal prosecutors had argued that the 56-year-old deserved 25 years’ imprisonment in addition to his earlier sentence, citing the singer’s “lack of remorse” as a reason he would pose a danger to society if released.
“The only way to ensure he will not reoffend is to impose a sentence that will keep him in prison for the rest of his life,” Jeannice Williams Appenteng, one of the prosecutors, said in court on Thursday.
One of R. Kelly’s lawyers, Jennifer Bonjean, argued that her client was “likely to die in prison either way,” but that if he did not, he would not pose a threat in old age.
Judge Harry D. Leinenweber agreed, saying in court that he did not think the singer would be likely to commit the same kind of crimes in his 80s.
The judge acknowledged that he would have dealt a heavier sentence if the Chicago trial had come first.
