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R. Kelly has been found guilty of sexually abusing women, boys, and girls in a Brooklyn courtroom on Monday.
Kelly was found guilty on nine counts of RICO violations, as well as transporting minor females across state lines for sex, on Monday.
The jury of seven men and five women deliberated for nine hours before returning their verdicts on the evidence against the singer.
Testimony of accusers and prosecution witnesses closed out the month-long trial in Brooklyn, New York.
Pool via Getty Images During the proceedings, prosecutors told jurors that Kelly used a network of friends and employees to secretly transport minors and women across state lines and control their actions.
Many of the witnesses who took the stand during the trial claimed Kelly had kidnapped them and restricted what and when they could eat. They also claimed he controlled when they could take bathroom breaks.
Kelly’s attorneys attempted to discredit the accusers as groupies who who were willing to be used and controlled.
The defense claimed the victims had concocted tall tales about the singer after he refused their advances.
Pool via Getty Images
One of his alleged victims claimed she witnessed the singer performing oral sex on teenage R&B singer Aaliyah, who Kelly illegally wed in a Chicago hotel room in 1994 – when she was only 15.
A former tour manager for Kelly also testified that he bribed a welfare office employee to make a fake ID for Aaliyah, which listed her age as 18.
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Prosecutors claimed Kelly married Aaliyah in a bid to avoid criminal charges for having sex with a minor. Their marriage was later annulled. Kelly did not take the stand to testify in his own defense during the trial.
Kelly also faces criminal charges in separate cases from state prosecutors in Minnesota and federal prosecutors in Illinois.
