R. Kelly’s trial for charges of child pornography, enticement, and obstruction of justice has been scheduled for next April.
The announcement came on Wednesday during a hearing where Kelly pleaded not guilty to all charges. Kelly has been held in a Chicago correctional facility since June and it was just announced earlier this week that he would move into the general inmate population, despite concerns that other inmates would try to hurt him because of his celebrity status, Billboard reports.
This will be the first time the R&B singer is on trial since he was acquitted in 2008 on child pornography charges. He was arrested earlier this year for this same case, as he allegedly paid witnesses to withhold testimony during the former trial, which revolves around a 14-year-old girl that he allegedly had sexual relations with.
Earlier this year, Kelly become involved in a string of sexual assault cases after the release of Lifetime’s docu-series Surviving R. Kelly, which outlined two decades-worth of sexual abuse allegations. He has been accused of sexual interactions with minors, “knowing and intentionally affecting a women with a STD,” domestic violence, and holding girls against their will in a “sex cult.” In February, he pleaded not guilty to 10 counts of sexual abuse and was charged with 11 new felony sex-related crimes in May.
His list of alleged sex crimes continues to build while he’s in jail; in August, he was charged with two more counts of prostitution and solicitation involving an underage girl in Minnesota. If he is convicted on all charges in New York, Illinois, and Minnesota, Kelly could face up to 195 years in prison.
The trial is set for April 27, 2020. Until then, Kelly will remain in the Metropolitan Correctional Center in downtown Chicago.
