R. Kelly trial: Jury deliberations begin

CHICAGO — Jurors began deliberations Tuesday in the trial of singer R. Kelly, who faces allegations of making child pornography and fixing his 2008 trial in Illinois, according to multiple reports.

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The jury began deliberating the case against Kelly and two of his former employees, Derrel McDavid and Milton “June” Brown, just after 1 p.m. Tuesday, according to WLS-TV.

In closing arguments earlier Tuesday, Kelly’s attorney, Jennifer Bonjean, highlighted that several key government witnesses testified with immunity after earlier lying to authorities, calling into question their credibility, The Associated Press reported. She said her client was victimized by opportunistic “lowlifes” who exploited him for years, according to WGN-TV.

In rebuttal, prosecutor Jeannice Appenteng cited testimony that Kelly “had to have what he wanted,” and that his staff and associates complied with that request more and more after his fame boomed in the mid-90s, the AP and WFLD reported.

“What R. Kelly wanted was to have sex with young girls,” Appenteng said, according to WFLD.

Kelly was accused of enticing girls for sex and fixing his earlier child pornography trial in state court. McDavid was charged with conspiring to obstruct justice while Brown faces a child pornography conspiracy charge.

McDavid testified that at the time allegations against Kelly began to surface, he didn’t believe them, the Chicago Sun-Times reported. Instead, he thought they were part of a plot concocted by the singer’s enemies to destroy him, according to the newspaper.

The case went to jurors after weeks of testimony from witnesses, including four women who said they were sexually abused by the R&B star when they were girls. Among the accusers was a woman identified in court as “Jane” who said that she was 14 years old when she appeared in the infamous tape at the center of Kelly’s 2008 child pornography trial.

She and her family members did not testify in Kelly’s 2008 trial. Prosecutors said Kelly paid and threatened them to lie about Jane’s relationship with Kelly.

In court, Jane testified that she and Kelly began having phone sex when she was 13 or 14, after he showed up at a gospel concert at her church, WBBM-TV reported. She said her relationship with the singer turned physical when she was 14, and that she “lost her virginity” to Kelly when she was 15, according to the news station.

She testified that she and Kelly had sex an “uncountable” number of times, and that she later brought two of her friends – identified in court as “Pinky” and “Brittany” – into their sexual encounters when they were both teenagers, WBBM reported. She told jurors she did as much because she believed herself to be in love with Kelly, and she didn’t want him to think that she wasn’t cooperating with him, according to the news station.

She admitted in court to lying to authorities and a grand jury about having a sexual relationship with Kelly in the early 2000s, CNN reported. She testified under immunity for lying under oath.

She told jurors she lied “because I was afraid to expose Robert. Because I was afraid of what might happen to my parents,” according to CNN. She said that she ultimately decided to testify in this trial because she “became exhausted with living with his lies,” the Chicago Tribune reported.

Last year, a federal jury in New York found Kelly, 55, guilty of heading a racketeering and sex trafficking scheme that for decades preyed on young women. In June, a judge sentenced Kelly to serve 30 years in prison related to the charges.

If he’s convicted of charges in Illinois, Kelly could face decades more in prison.

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