R. Kelly trial: jury says they're undecided on two counts on two defendants as deliberations continue
CHICAGO (CBS) -- In a possible signal that jurors in R. Kelly's federal trial in Chicago might be close to reaching a verdict, jurors sent a note to the judge Wednesday afternoon, saying they are undecided on two counts involving two defendants in the case.
The jurors' note didn't reveal which specific counts or defendants they have yet to reach a verdict on. Despite a request from attorneys for Kelly and his former business manager, Derrel McDavid, to accept the partial verdict the jurors' have reached, and declare a mistrial on the remaining counts jurors are undecided on, U.S. District Judge Harry Leinenweber said he would instruct the jury to continue deliberations, and try to reach a unanimous verdict on all counts.
Leinenweber also told attorneys in the case to "stay close," suggesting he expects a full verdict soon.
Less than an hour later, jurors sent another note suggesting they were hung up on a conspiracy to receive child pornography charge, the only charge all three defendants are facing.
The jurors' question essentially asked if they must find the government proved the defendants conspired to receive all three videos referenced in the charge, or only some of them. The charge accuses Kelly and two associates of conspiring to recover those videos in an attempt to cover them up.
Defense attorneys wanted to require the jury to find proof of an attempt to recover all three videos, but the judge disagreed, saying he would tell the jury they could find guilt if there was proof of an attempt to recover any of the videos referenced in that charge, not necessarily all three.
Kelly, 55, is facing a 13-count indictment on charges of child pornography, obstruction of justice, and enticing minors for sex. Two former associates are being tried alongside him.
Kelly and his former business manager, Derrel McDavid, are accused of fixing Kelly's 2008 child pornography trial – at which he was acquitted – by intimidating and paying off witnesses, and conspiring to cover up Kelly's alleged sexual abuse of children by buying back incriminating videotapes. McDavid faces four charges – two for receiving child pornography, one for conspiracy to receive child pornography, and one for conspiracy to obstruct justice.
Kelly's former assistant, Milton "June" Brown is charged with one count of receiving child pornography for his alleged role in the scheme to cover up the sex tapes.
Jurors earlier in the day on Wednesday asked three questions about their deliberations.
One question dealt with a discrepancy between language in the indictment and language in jury instructions. Jurors wanted to know if they needed to find that Kelly both enticed and coerced minors into sexual activity to find him guilty of those specific charges, or whether they needed to determine he either enticed or coerced them. Over the objections of Kelly's defense team, U.S. District Judge Harry Leinenweber said he would tell jurors they only need to determine Kelly either coerced or enticed his accusers.
The other two questions were requests to see paperwork related to an internship accuser "Tracy" had at a record label, and for Westin Hotel records from 1999 and 2000. Tracy has said she met Kelly while working as an intern at a record label when she was 16 years old, and that he sexually abused her at a Westin Hotel in 1999. But in a previous lawsuit against Kelly, Tracy claimed she was 17 when they started having sex.
Federal prosecutors have argued that, given the specific federal charges Kelly faces, it only matters that Tracy was under age 18 at the time of their sexual encounters. However, Kelly's defense team has pointed to the inconsistencies in Tracy's claims about her age as evidence that her testimony can't be trusted.
The judge said neither Tracy's internship paperwork nor Westin Hotel records from 1999 and 2000 were formally admitted into evidence in the case, so the jury won't be able to see them.
Before the jury began its deliberations, Kelly's lead defense attorney asked jurors to set aside what they knew about the singer before the trial, acknowledging most of it probably wasn't favorable, and to treat him as a "John Doe." Bonjean said the jury must make their decision based only on the evidence they heard in the courtroom, not what they might know about Kelly through the media, or what they've heard about him elsewhere.
Bonjean said no matter what jurors might decide, Kelly did some beautiful things when it came to making music, and he shouldn't "be stripped of every bit of humanity he has."
However, in the prosecution's rebuttal argument, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeannice Appenteng said the evidence was clear that Kelly sexually abused girls, and his co-defendants helped him cover it up.
"What R. Kelly wanted was to have sex with young girls," Appenteng said.
Appenteng said when the jury reflects on the case, they should consider who is at the center of it: Kelly's victims. She said they were children when Kelly began sexual relationships with them, and the jury should find him guilty.
"The defendants are guilty of each count in the indictment. Hold them accountable," Appenteng said.
Jurors heard four weeks of testimony from more than 30 witnesses, and saw clips from three sex tapes that prosecutors say show Kelly sexually abusing his 14-year-old goddaughter.
During the trial, four women accused Kelly of sexually abusing them when they were girls, including the state's star witness, who testified under the pseudonym "Jane," and told jurors that Kelly began abusing her after becoming her godfather when she was only 14, and had sex with her hundreds of times between the ages of 14 and 18.
Jane had denied for years that Kelly abused her, but now says Kelly intimidated her and her family, and paid them off to keep his abuse secret. She now says she was the person in the video at the center of Kelly's 2008 child pornography trial in Cook County, and has told the jury Kelly recorded her on other videos shown in court.
McDavid was the only defendant to testify at the trial, spending three days on the witness stand repeatedly telling jurors that he believed Kelly when he denied sexually abusing girls in the early 2000s, but said he began to have doubts about Kelly's innocence after learning new things during the ongoing federal trial.
Kelly already has been sentenced to 30 years in prison after he was convicted last year of racketeering and sex trafficking charges in federal court in New York.
