A new storm begins for R. Kelly at 55.
3 min read
On Wednesday last week, Robert Sylvester Kelly, a highly talented American songwriter and producer was sentenced to spend the next 30 years of his life in prison for various sexual offences. The chart buster Rhythm and Blues king whose voice can melt a rock is 55 years old. If a presidential pardon does not come his way, Kelly will leave the prison gates when he clocks 85 by 2052. On the first hearing of the R. Kelly case, an assistant US attorney named Maria Cruz Melendez stood up and addressed the New York jury. Hear her: “This case is not about a celebrity who likes to party a lot. This case is about a predator”.
The Umuaka Times correspondent in America who monitored the case disclosed that during the trial of the embattled R&B song writer and performer, several allegations against him were very sound and convincing that witnesses who were called upon, numbered into dozens, comprising men and women who freely spoke and gave evidence about the unending criminal sexual activities of Mr Kelly. The evidences the witnesses gave, put to end several rumours Mr Kelly silenced over the years with his top celebrity global personality.
On his own part, Mr Kelly denied all the charges and declared himself innocent of the charges. His attorneys also described his accusers and witnesses as “disgruntled groupies” and told the jury that all the relationships Kelly had in the past were consenting.
At the end of the heated legal arguments, the jury believed the witnesses and the R. Kelly sexual victims and handed him the tragic sentence that shocked the whole world last week. There was a total of 9 charges according to Umuaka Times correspondent brought against Kelly. There was one charge of racketeering and there were eight other charges against the global music icon whose net worth once hit $100 million some years ago but later went down to minus $2million. The jury eventually found Kelly guilty in each of the charges and sentenced him to 30 years in prison. End of the road for a super predator.
It can be recalled that the trial of the world famous Kelly took place in September 2021and the sentence was just handed over to Kelly last week. Even if Kelly secures a presidential pardon, there is still another trial he faces in Chicago later in the year and no one knows his fate till then.
The reckless life Robert Sylvester Kelly lived has indeed put a tragic end to his eventful and flourishing music career. This is a man who won a total of 110 awards in 274 nominations in his music career that spanned for 25 years. For music lovers and fans of Robert Kelly across the globe especially in America and Nigeria, it is a final goodbye for the music legend and a famous Rhythm and Blues general. By the time Kelly would be out from prison, (if he does not bag another sentence or if he does not die in prison), he would be around 85 years and too old to pick up his career again. What a tragic end for a man whose storm is not over yet.
