*R. Kelly was convicted on three child pornography charges at his federal trial in Chicago on Wednesday.
Prosecutors accused the Grammy-winning superstar of recording his sexual encounters with underage girls. The conviction reportedly comes with a mandatory 10-year prison sentence.
According to WGN News, the jury began deliberating on Tuesday after a month-long trial. Kelly was acquitted on seven other counts in the indictment: “one child pornography count, one count of sexual exploitation of a child, one count of aggravated criminal sexual abuse, as well as four conspiracy counts,” the outlet writes.
Kelly was convicted on similar sex abuse charges in Brooklyn federal court last year and sentenced to 30 years in prison. He has two additional criminal cases pending, one in Cook County and another in Minnesota.
READ MORE: R. Kelly’s Daughter Says His Reputation Has Negatively Impacted Her Music Career | Video
We reported previously that Kelly’s Chicago case centered on the alleged victim in his 2008 state child pornography trial. Kelly is accused of threatening and paying off a girl who he allegedly filmed himself having sex with when he was around 30 and she was no older than 14.
It was back in 2008 that jurors acquitted Kelly on all charges in that trial, some explaining later that they felt they had no choice because the girl did not testify. Apparently, things have changed because the woman, now in her 30s and referred to in filings only as “Minor 1,” was the government’s star witness in the Chicago federal trial.
In 2008, Kelly was acquitted on child porn charges in a state trial in Illinois. The same videos were at the center of this year’s federal trial. At the 2008 trial, the woman, identified as Jane, did not testify.
Federal investigators argued that Kelly rigged that trial by paying off Jane’s family with vacations and hiding her in hotels during the proceedings. The jury acquitted Kelly on the obstruction of justice charge that stemmed from those accusations.
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