JUST IN: R. Kelly Found Guilty on All Counts in Federal Sex Trafficking Trial

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A federal jury on Monday found disgraced rapper R. Kelly guilty on all counts in his trial for sex trafficking and racketeering.

The 54-year-old rapper, whose real name is Robert Sylvester Kelly, was convicted on nine counts that included racketeering, kidnapping, forced labor, sexual exploitation of a child, bribery, and trafficking. Forty-five witnesses testified over the course of the trial, including six who said they were underage when they began engaging in sexual encounters with Kelly.

“He’s not a genius,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Nadia Shihata told jurors during closing arguments in the case, which was heard in the Eastern District of New York. “He’s a criminal. A predator.”

The verdict came after the jury spent nine hours deliberating on the tail-end of Kelly’s month-long trial, which began Aug. 18. He is facing 10 years to life in prison when a judge hands down his sentence on May 4, though Kelly’s legal team said they were considering an appeal.

Kelly, best known for his 1996 song, “I Believe I Can Fly,” has been battling the criminal charges since he was indicted by a grand jury in Chicago in July 2019. He is still facing charges in that city of aggravated criminal sexual abuse involving four victims, three of whom were underage, along with charges related to child pornography and obstructing investigators.

He was also charged in Minnesota in August 2019 with engaging in prostitution with a minor, but failed to show up to his court date. That case is unlikely to be resolved until legal proceedings wrap up in Illinois.