NEW YORK — Embattled singer R. Kelly has officially decided not to testify in his own defense as his federal racketeering trial winds down in New York.
His decision, which was widely anticipated, was announced outside the presence of the jury after the testimony of the defense’s last witness.
After Kelly said he would not take the stand, U.S. District Judge Ann Donnelly asked him if he’d had a chance to speak with his attorneys about the decision. Kelly, standing in court in a blue suit, said, “Yes ma’am, your honor.”
Donnelly told prosecutors to be prepared to begin their closing argument in the case after the lunch break. Jurors could begin deliberations as soon as Thursday.
Kelly, 54, was accused in an indictment filed in 2019 with heading a criminal enterprise that employed agents, runners, bodyguards and others to lure and trap girls and young women to satisfy his sexually predatory desires.
Kelly’s attorneys began their case in chief on Monday, calling several witnesses to bolster their arguments that it is actually Kelly who is the victim of untruthful, spiteful exes and overzealous federal prosecutors.
Kelly’s attorneys had already said the singer was unlikely to testify — a move that would expose the R&B superstar to what undoubtedly would be a rigorous cross-examination.
In this courtroom sketch, R. Kelly, center, sits with his defense attorneys Thomas Farinella, top, and Nicole Blank Becker during the first day of his defense in his sex trafficking case, Sept. 20, 2021, in New York. (Elizabeth Williams/AP)
Kelly announced his decision not to take the stand after the defense called their fifth and final witness, Julius Darrington, a music consultant for RCA Records who worked on developing a new album with Kelly over several years beginning in 2016.
Darrington told the jury he traveled often from Los Angeles to Chicago, where he spent hours with Kelly at his West Side studio. He and Kelly would play basketball in the evenings at a nearby gym before working overnight making music, with Darrington often crashing on a couch in the studio’s lounge.
Asked on direct examination if he ever saw Kelly’s “girlfriends” locked up in the studio, Darrington replied, “No.”
“Did you ever hear any women crying?” Kelly attorney Deveraux Cannick asked. Darrington said he did not.
Darrington said he would often see Kelly’s girlfriends outside the Trump Tower where Kelly lived, “coming from various stores” and carrying shopping bags.
He said he also never heard Kelly striking anyone, either at the studio or on long road trips to performances in cities like Phoenix or Dallas.
On cross-examination, Darrington acknowledged that Kelly had helped him break into the music business and that he considered him a friend. Prosecutors also pointed out that he was based in California and had no idea what Kelly was up to when he wasn’t in Chicago.
“”I assume you were never present when the defendant was engaged in sexual activity?” Assistant U.S. Attorney Nadia Shihata asked.
“Correct,” Darrington said.
“So you have no knowledge of what (Kelly) did behind closed doors when you weren’t there?” Shihata asked.
Darrington replied, “Correct.”
Kelly has repeatedly denied accusations that behind the scenes of a 30-year career highlighted by his 1996 megahit “I Believe I Can Fly,” he was a sexual predator who groomed and exploited his young victims. His lawyers have portrayed the accusers as groupies seeking to take advantage of his fame.
On Tuesday, accountant John Holder was among the latest former Kelly associates to testify for the defense that they never saw him torment his alleged accusers. Holder described seeing Kelly carrying around a backpack full of cash — proceeds from concerts — to take the women and girls on shopping sprees.
On cross-examination, prosecutors displayed for jurors a piece of evidence suggesting Holder’s contributions were childlike: a flow chart Holder made of Kelly’s business depicting a red cartoon octopus.
As in most criminal trials, the bulk of the defense’s case has come out in cross-examination of prosecution witnesses.
One of the defense’s first witnesses was Larry Hood, a childhood friend who worked security for Kelly as an off-duty Chicago police officer in the early 2000s. He claimed he never witnessed Kelly misbehaving with underage girls. A defense attorney also asked if he saw his friend lock anyone in a room.
“No, sir,” Hood responded. If he saw that, he added, “As a police officer, I would have had to take action against that.”
In this courtroom sketch, Larry Hood, former security and body guard for R. Kelly, testifies for the defense during the R. Kelly sex trafficking trial, Monday, Sept. 20, 2021, in New York. (AP Photo/Elizabeth Williams) (Elizabeth Williams/AP)
On cross-examination, Hood admitted the Police Department fired him in 2007 after a guilty plea in a counterfeit money case, though he got to keep his pension.
Prosecutors’ witnesses fell largely into two categories. Kelly’s accusers, mostly young women, have alleged that he was violent and manipulative, even controlling when they could leave their rooms to use the bathroom. Kelly’s alleged enablers have taken the stand to testify about the structure of the so-called enterprise, including Kelly’s rules keeping women isolated to their rooms or on tour buses.
The defense, through their cross-examination, has focused largely on painting Kelly’s accusers as liars, motivated by jealousy or profit.
While the trial has taken place in Brooklyn’s federal courthouse, much of the evidence ties back to Kelly’s native Chicago. Witnesses described the hotel in suburban Rosemont where Kelly married underage Aaliyah in the 1990s, the old Rock ‘n’ Roll McDonald’s in River North where he allegedly tried to pick up a teenager, his various Chicago recording studios, and his mansion in suburban Olympia Fields.
The New York case is the first of Kelly’s many criminal charges to go to trial. He also faces a case in Chicago’s federal courthouse, where prosecutors allege he and two others fixed his 2008 trial in Cook County. Kelly was acquitted in that trial, but in 2019 county prosecutors brought four new indictments against him, all of which are still pending at Chicago’s Leighton Criminal Court Building. Kelly also faces a solicitation case in state court in Minnesota.
Jason Meisner reported from New York and Megan Crepeau from Chicago. The Associated Press contributed.
jmeisner@chicagotribune.com
mcrepeau@chicagotribune.com
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