R. Kelly’s Chicago conviction upheld by appeals court

The federal appeals court in Chicago affirmed the 2022 conviction of onetime R&B star R. Kelly on Friday, noting that an “even-handed” jury handed down a mixed verdict “even after viewing those abhorrent tapes.”

The decision follows arguments in February that mostly revolved around the length of Kelly’s prison sentence — and whether U.S. District Judge Harry Leinenweber went too far by handing Kelly 20 years.

Leinenweber also ruled that Kelly may serve 19 of those years while serving a 30-year prison sentence for his racketeering conviction in New York. The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel ruled Friday that Kelly’s Chicago sentence “cannot be fairly assessed without reference” to that sentence in New York, which Kelly is appealing separately.

“What looks like 240 months for this Illinois conduct is, with that context, more like twelve,” Judge Amy St. Eve wrote in Friday’s 14-page opinion.

She concluded that Leinenweber did not overreach.

A federal jury in Chicago convicted Kelly in 2022 of three counts of producing child pornography and three counts of enticing minors into criminal sexual activity. Leinenweber then handed Kelly that 20-year prison sentence in February 2023.

Jurors in the Chicago case viewed graphic videos during the trial of Kelly sexually abusing a teenage girl.

Still, that jury also acquitted Kelly on other counts, rejecting the allegation that Kelly illegally thwarted an earlier 2008 state-court trial that ended without a conviction.

Kelly, 57, is being held in a medium-security prison in North Carolina, records show. He is not due to be released until December 2045.

Federal guidelines called for a sentence of up to 14 years in Kelly’s Chicago case. But judges are not bound by those guidelines, and Leinenweber exceeded them by six years.

Kelly’s attorney, Jennifer Bonjean, argued to the appellate court that Leinenweber seemed to rely at sentencing on crimes for which Kelly had been acquitted — including the conspiracy to obstruct the 2008 state court prosecution.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Brian Williamson countered that Leinenweber found Kelly committed obstruction by a preponderance of the evidence. Williamson also insisted that Leinenweber’s review of other factors in the case was enough to justify the higher sentence.

St. Eve told Bonjean in February that Leinenweber did not specifically say he was relying on the obstruction claims against Kelly to justify a harsher sentence. Rather, she said Leinenweber’s sentence seemed “grounded” in the factors mentioned by Williamson, like the nature of Kelly’s crimes and the need for deterrence.

St. Eve also noted that, if Kelly’s sentence here were to be undone, Leinenweber “could start over and look at everything” — and hand down a sentence that would truly add more time to Kelly’s prison stay.

“Does your client realize that?” St. Eve asked Bonjean.

Bonjean said she and Kelly had discussed the risks, though such a result would amount to punishing Kelly for exercising his right to appeal.

Bonjean told the judges that, if his sentence in New York stands, Kelly “probably will die in prison.” She has also previously said that, if the New York sentence is overturned, that development could force a new sentencing hearing in Chicago.