Earlier this week, ex-business manager for R. Kelly and co-defendant at the singer’s federal trial in Chicago, Derrell McDavid expressed doubts on the witness stand about Kelly’s insistence in the 2000s that he allegedly never sexually abused minors. This came a day after the former employee told jurors he had had no reason to doubt his boss was telling the truth. Kelly and McDavid are both charged with allegedly fixing Kelly’s 2008 alleged child pornography trial by allegedly threatening witnesses and concealing video evidence. Both also face alleged child pornography charges. McDavid’s testimony could be a major blow to Kelly’s hope of acquittal.
Kelly’s defense team has several times asked that Kelly’s trial be severed from McDavid’s and that Kelly be tried alone, saying their interests at a joint trial would inevitably conflict. Judge Harry Leinenweber has repeatedly rejected that request. With jurors out of the courtroom, Kelly’s lead lawyer, Jennifer Bonjean said she was worried McDavid would cast doubt about Kelly’s believability. She said it would unfairly prejudice her client in jurors’ eyes and, on some counts, seal his fate.
“The last (few) weeks … I’ve learned a lot … that I had no idea about in 2008,” McDavid said. He added that, “as I stand here today, I’m embarrassed… sad.”
The ongoing trial in Kelly’s hometown is almost a do-over of his 2008 trial. A single video, which state prosecutors said showed Kelly allegedly sexually abusing a girl of around 14, was at the heart of that trial. The same video is in evidence at the current trial. The girl in the video did not testify at that 2008 trial, which jurors said at the time was one reason they couldn’t convict Kelly. She did testify at the current trial under the pseudonym, “Jane.”
On Thursday, McDavid told jurors he and Kelly began to grow apart in the years after the 2008 trial and he quit working for Kelly in 2014. McDavid is the only one of the three defendants testifying in his own behalf. Both Kelly and Milton Brown, the third co-defendant, told the trial judge last week they would not testify. This trial follows a separate federal trial in New York, where Kelly was sentenced to 30 years in June. (Billboard)