When he is sentenced on Wednesday, nine months after being found guilty of sexually abusing women and children, singer R. Kelly could face decades in prison.
A New York jury found the disgraced pop star guilty of racketeering and eight counts of sex trafficking in September.
The R&B singer, age 55, will spend at least ten years in prison, with a maximum sentence of life.
The prosecution believes he should spend at least 25 years in prison.
His legal team argued that he should receive the minimum ten-year sentence because he “no longer poses a risk to the public.”
The singer, known for the hit songs I Believe I Can Fly and Ignition (Remix), was discovered to have been the leader of a violent and coercive scheme to sexually abuse women and children.
During the six-week trial, it was revealed that the defendant, assisted by managers, security guards, and other entourage members, engaged in interstate human trafficking for decades.
According to prosecutors, he exhibited a “callous disregard” for his victims and lacked remorse.
“The defendant’s decades of criminal activity appear to have been fueled by narcissism and a belief that his musical talent exempted him from any obligation to conform his behavior – regardless of how predatory, harmful, humiliating, or abusive it was to others – to the requirements of the law,” they said.
The court also heard that Kelly obtained illegal paperwork to marry singer Aaliyah when she was 15 in 1994, seven years before the singer’s death in a plane crash.
The certificate leaked at the time stated that Aaliyah was 18 years old. Later, the marriage was dissolved.
Wednesday, after numerous delays, he will be sentenced at the US District Court in New York.
Kelly is being tried separately in Chicago for child sex images and obstruction of justice. Additionally, he faces sexual assault charges in Illinois and Minnesota.
