R. Kelly’s latest appeal to overturn his New York sex trafficking and racketeering conviction has been denied. According to recent reports, the disgraced musician’s convictions and 30-year prison sentence were upheld this week in federal appeals court, despite his argument through his attorneys that he did not run a racketeering enterprise because his employees were unaware of the age of his young victims.
The decision that came Wednesday rejected his argument, as the New York Daily News reports from an obtained 85-page document. “The record is replete with evidence that Kelly was able to commit the predicate acts because he was the head of a close-knit group of associates and he controlled the affairs of the enterprise,” Judge Denny Chin wrote when explaining Wednesday’s decision, upholding Kelly’s sentencing from June 2022.
The statement goes on to cite a very specific example in the decision: Kelly’s controversial marriage to the late Aaliyah. As we have reported, Kelly shockingly married Aaliyah back in 1994. Yes, that means Aaliyah was 15 and Kelly was a 27-year-old man.
“For instance, members of Kelly’s entourage participated directly in a predicate act when they devised a plan for Kelly to marry Aaliyah when she was underage,” the decision reads, rejecting the argument that those around him were unaware of the age differences.
Chin also wrote that those in Kelly’s inner circle played an important role in “recruiting his victims and keeping them quiet and under his thumb.”
Kelly also reportedly argued in his appeal that four of the jurors were “biased against him” due to the high publicity surrounding his case following the release of the 2019 “Surviving R. Kelly” documentary (that two jurors admitted to watching).
The appeals court rejected this as well, however, agreeing that “after giving each side an opportunity to request further questioning,” Brooklyn Federal Court Judge Ann Donnelly was correct in deciding that every juror could be “impartial when deciding the case.”
As the New York Daily News reports, Kelly has lost many appeals, including every appeal in Chicago since his sentencing in 2022. Just this last October, as we reported, the Supreme Court rejected also his appeal.