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Kelly was convicted of three of four child pornography charges and acquitted of conspiracy to obstruct justice at his 2008 trial, which stemmed from a 2002 state case.
He was also found guilty of three out of five counts of enticing a minor to engage in criminal sexual activity.
Jennifer Bonjean, Kelly’s attorney, said her client had a “sense of relief” that this case is now behind him and believed prosecutors had overstated their case against him. Bonjean said she is considering filing an appeal.
“There was a mixed verdict, but we won more points than we lost,” Bonjean said outside court after the verdict. “If this jury concluded that he was guilty of the first three counts, would they care enough to consider the evidence on the rest? And they demonstrated that they did. They did their job. They looked at every single charge. “
Jurors deliberated for about 10 hours after listening to three weeks of testimony, including from a woman who testified anonymously that Kelly sexually abused her and recorded the interactions when she was as young as 14.
The woman was one of five minors that prosecutors allege Kelly sexually abused in the late 1990s, making explicit videos with four of them.
Kelly’s co-defendants, former associates Derrel McDavid and Milton Brown, were acquitted of all charges they faced.
McDavid, Kelly’s former accountant and business manager, was charged with conspiracy to receive child pornography, receiving child pornography and conspiracy to obstruct justice. Brown, Kelly’s former assistant, was charged with conspiracy to receive child pornography. Both pleaded not guilty.
Vadim Glozman and Beau Brindley, lawyers for McDavid, praised the verdict in a statement to CNN.
“The jury found what we knew all along. The government brought a case that should never have been brought. It was based on the words of proven liars,” the lawyers said. “We exposed them in front of the jury and the jury made the right decision.”
CNN has reached out to Kelly and Brown’s attorneys for comment.
Victim testified about sexual abuse
One of the witnesses in the trial, a 37-year-old woman, spoke in federal court under the pseudonym Jane and testified that Kelly began engaging in sexual acts with her when she was 14 and had intercourse with her when she was 15. They had sex “hundreds” of times before she turned 18, she said.
Jane testified that she met Kelly through her aunt, Sparkle, who worked with R. Kelly and had a romantic relationship with him. Jane was 12 or 13 when she met the singer.
At the time, Jane was traveling the world with a Christian hip-hop group whose members were her cousins. Prosecutors asked her not to name the group to protect her identity.
Soon after they met, Jane said she started spending more time with Kelly and Sparkle. She wanted to watch Kelly and Sparkle record music and talk about basketball and music with Kelly. Jane testified that she was 13 when Sparkle suggested that Jane ask Kelly to play a bigger role in her life.
Jane testified that Kelly became her godfather, at which point her parents felt comfortable letting her stay overnight or even the weekend at her home without her parents or aunt present.
“They would basically hand me over and then leave,” Jane testified.
Jane said she was 14 when her relationship with Kelly became sexual, and that she lost her virginity to him when she was 15.
When the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services began investigating an allegation that Kelly had a sexual relationship with Jane in April 2000, when she was 15, Jane testified that she denied the relationship. She also testified that she later denied to Chicago police investigators that she and Kelly had a sexual relationship.
Jane, her parents and Kelly met for a meeting when reports began to emerge in 2002 about the existence of a tape showing the couple engaged in sexual acts. She said Kelly admitted to them that he had a sexual relationship with their daughter.
Jane and her father received subpoenas to testify before a grand jury in 2002. Jane testified that before appearing before the grand jury, she had a conversation with Kelly about “loyalty” and “denial of our relationship and the sex bond.”
Jane testified that she lied to a grand jury in 2002 when she denied having a sexual relationship and appeared in sex videos with the singer.
CNN’s Amir Vera contributed to this report.
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