R Kelly moved from Brooklyn prison to Chicago’s federal jail ahead of new trial
Just two weeks after he was sentenced in New York to 30 years in prison for racketeering and sex trafficking, R Kelly is back in a Chicago federal jail awaiting his second criminal trial next month.
The 55-year-old disgraced R&B star was transferred Tuesday from where he was being held Brooklyn to Chicago’s Metropolitan Correctional Center, the Chicago Tribune reported.
Kelly was first held at the correctional after he was indicted on federal charges in Chicago and New York in 2019. Jury selection for his federal trial in Chicago is set to begin Aug. 15.
He is accused of allegedly conspiring with two associates to rig a child pornography case in Cook County in 2008 and hide a slew of sexual assault allegations against minors.
Kelly was convicted in 2021 in New York on charges that he sexually abused young fans, including children, in a systematic scheme that prosecutors alleged went on for decades.
On June 29, Judge Ann M. Donnelly handed down Kelly’s 30-year sentence in Brooklyn Federal Court. Kelly had appealed the jury’s verdict and the judge’s sentence
Attorneys for Kelly claimed he was placed on suicide watch as a form of punishment by the US Attorney’s Office, but prosecutors pushed back, arguing Kelly’s ‘life circumstances undoubtedly [brought] emotional distress.’
Jury selection for Kelly’s trial in Chicago will begin in a month at the Dirksen US Courthouse.
Chicago is Kelly’s hometown and where many of his accusers live, so interest is expected to be especially intense.
Kelly faces charges that he and two co-defendants fixed his state trial in 2008, with prosecutors saying Kelly arranged for a girl and her parents to travel overseas to prevent them from talking with police prior to his 2002 indictment and later instructed them to lie to a grand jury about the case.
Read also: R Kelly’s Net Worth – Is He Really Worth $1.3 Million?
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