A legal counselor for R Kelly is asking a federal judge for a more indulgent jail sentence for the “musical genius,” after recently unlocked court reports uncovered his “hypersexual” conduct was the consequence of repeated sexual abuse by his sister as a kid.
The insights about the horrible childhood of the R&B vocalist, who was sentenced for nine counts of sex trafficking and racketeering charges in a Brooklyn court in September, were released in a sentencing memo unsealed on Tuesday, according to Insider.
Insider reports that Bonjean’s verdict contained a report from two psychologists who had evaluated Kelly, who wrote that his older sister sexually abused him and his brothers for years, from when Kelly was only six years old. Kelly was also allegedly sexually abused by a landlord and a friend of the family as a child.
Today, Kelly is scheduled to be tried in the U.S. District Court in Brooklyn, where he risks up to 25 years in prison. His lawyer, Jennifer Bonjean, who described her client as a “musical genius”, asked for 10 years in the sentencing memo given his own extensive childhood sexual abuse.
Bonjean equated the prosecutor’s recommendation with a life sentence, citing the singer’s age of 55.
“A 25-year prison sentence is equivalent to a life sentence for the 55-year-old defendant,” Kelly’s lawyer Jennifer Bonjean wrote. “Defendant’s convictions involve four victims who describe behaviors that simply do not deserve a de facto life sentence.”
