R. Kelly is Found Guilty on All Counts in Sex Trafficking Trial

After a weeks long court trial, R&B artist R. Kelly, whose real name is Robert Sylvester Kellywas found guilty on Monday on all counts in sex-trafficking and racketeering.

Kelly, convicted on all 9 charges against him, now faces the idea of decades behind bars and will be sentenced on May 4th.

The announcement of his guilty verdict was made by the U.S. Attorney’s office for the Eastern District of New York and the verdict represents the first criminal consequence for the singer.

He had pleaded not guilty to all charges in the case and did not take the stand in his own defense. During the trial several victims were identified as “Jane Does” including the singer

Aaliyah, who died in 2001. Kelly married Aaliyah in 1994 when she was just 15 years old by misrepresenting her age as 18 on the couple’s marriage license application.

The criminal proceedings had began on August 18th and took several weeks which included testiomy from over 45 witnesses. The jury had been made up of seven men and five women.

It has been decades of accusations made against Kelly for sexual assault. In 2008 he was acquitted on 14 counts in a highly publicized child pornography case in New York City.

In his current case, the R&B artist is charged with one count of racketeering, which encompassed 14 underlying acts including sexual exploitation of a child, kidnapping, bribery and sex trafficking. He has additionally been charged with eight counts of violations of the anti-sex trafficking law known as the Mann Act.

Kelly also faces charges in Illinois and Minnesota.

The singer is best known for his hit 1996 song “I Believe I Can Fly.”