CHICAGO (AP) — Prosecutors rested their case Tuesday at R. Kelly’s federal trial in Chicago after presenting two weeks of evidence and testimony from four Kelly accusers in their bid to prove the singer enticed underage girls for sex, produced child pornography and successfully rigged his 2008 state trial.
Among the last prosecution witnesses was a 42-year-old woman who went by the pseudonym “Nia.” Taking the stand Tuesday morning, she was the fourth and final accuser to testify against Kelly at the trial in his hometown. A fifth accuser, who prosecutors had said would testify, never did. They didn’t explain why.
The highlight of prosecutors’ case was testimony by a 37-year-old woman who used the pseudonym “Jane” and described Kelly sexually abusing her hundreds of times starting in 1998 when she was 14 and Kelly was around 30.
Jane’s testimony is vital to the charge accusing Kelly of fixing his 2008 child pornography trial, at which he was acquitted. She testified that Kelly and his associates threatened and paid off her and her parents to lie to a grand jury before the 2008 trial.
Legal teams for Kelly and two co-defendants now get their chance to attack the government’s case. U.S. District Judge Harry Leinenweber told jurors they would have Wednesday off, then return to listen to the first defense witnesses Thursday. Closing arguments are in the middle of next week.
Defense attorneys haven’t said if Kelly might testify. He didn’t testify at his earlier federal trial in New York, where a judge sentenced him in June to 30 years in prison for convictions on racketeering and sex trafficking charges. A conviction in Chicago could add years to that sentence.
Kelly’s 2008 state trial revolved around a video prosecutors said showed him sexually abusing Jane. She did not testify at that trial, but told jurors this month that she was the child in the video and Kelly was the adult man.
Kelly sold millions of albums even after allegations about his abuse of young girls began circulating publicly in the 1990s. Widespread outrage over his sexual misconduct didn’t emerge until after the #MeToo reckoning and the 2019 docuseries “Surviving R. Kelly.”
Two Kelly associates, Derrel McDavid and Milton Brown, are co-defendants at the Chicago trial. McDavid, a longtime Kelly business manager, is accused of helping Kelly rig the 2008 case. Brown is charged with receiving child pornography. Like Kelly, they have denied wrongdoing.
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