R. Kelly’s federal trial in Chicago results in split verdict; singer faces possibility of longer prison term after conviction on child pornography charges

CHICAGO — It took more than two decades for “Jane” to come forward about the sexual abuse she suffered at the hands of her godfather, R&B superstar R. Kelly.

And in the end, a federal jury in Chicago believed her.

They believed her testimony that she was the one on the graphic videos directed by the Grammy-winning singer, a man twice her age. They believed their ears when they heard Jane’s high-pitched, heartbreakingly young voice refer to her “14-year-old” genitalia.

And they believed their own eyes in finally determining, in a court of law, that Kelly was guilty.

In a split verdict after a hotly contested trial, a federal jury convicted Kelly on child pornography charges for making three videotapes of himself sexually abusing Jane beginning in the late 1990s. The charges Kelly was convicted of carry a minimum of 10 years in prison.

The conviction on those counts comes 14 years after Kelly’s infamous acquittal on similar charges in Cook County, which were based on a single video of Kelly allegedly abusing Jane in the hot tub room of his former home on West George Street. Jane had refused to cooperate in that case.

Kelly was also found guilty Wednesday on three out of five counts related to enticement of a minor involving Jane, as she was known in the trial, and two other victims who came forward to testify against him.

But in a rare loss for federal