R. Kelly sentenced to 30 years in prison in federal court in New York after judge says he left ‘a trail of broken lives’
NEW YORK — Chicago-born R&B superstar R. Kelly has been sentenced to 30 years in prison in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn, punctuating a remarkable fall from grace after decades of sexual misconduct allegations.
The sentence handed down by U.S. District Judge Ann Donnelly means Kelly will be in custody for more than another two decades, depending on how his time served is calculated.
Kelly declined to address the court before he was sentenced and his defense called no witnesses on his behalf. He showed no emotion as Donnelly handed the sentence down.
“These victims were disposable to you,” the judge told him. “You left in your wake a trail of broken lives. ... You taught them that love is enslavement and violence and humiliation.”
The sentence came after several women, some soft-voiced and sobbing, others with blazing anger, stood in the New York courtroom Wednesday to speak about a seemingly endless pattern of trauma and abuse at the hands of Kelly.
Through it all, the singer sat silent. He looked down at his hands. He gazed into the gallery. He looked straight ahead. He did not look up at his accusers.
“I want to ask you, Mr. Kelly, to look at me, man to man,” said the father of one of Kelly’s victims, who spoke to the court after his daughter’s remarks. The singer looked away.
The long-awaited hearing in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn that began Wednesday morning took place nine months after Kelly, 55, was convicted by a jury of racketeering conspiracy and eight other counts alleging he used his organization to lure
