evidence: R. Kelly sentenced to 20 years following HSI Chicago investigation CHICAGO — Recording artist Robert Sylvester Kelly, also known as R. Kelly, was sentenced by United States District Judge Harry D. Leinenweber to 20 years in federal prison, 19 of them concurrent with the 30-year sentence previously imposed in the Eastern District of New York Feb. 23. On Sept. 14, after a four-week trial, a federal jury in Chicago convicted Kelly of three counts of producing child pornography and three counts of enticing a minor to engage in sexual activity. The trial revealed that Kelly enticed multiple underage girls to engage in sexual activity and that he continued to abuse his victims for years, at times recording some of the abuse. Kelly met his victims in the late 1990s and engaged in sex acts with them when they were as young as 14, 15 and 16 years old. On multiple occasions over several years, Kelly covered up his abuse and silenced his victims.