Federal prosecutors said on Wednesday that R. Kelly deserves more than 25 years in prison after the disgraced R&B star was convicted of a swath of crimes last year, including racketeering based on sexual exploitation of children. In a sentencing memorandum, prosecutors told a New York judge that Kelly’s “decades of crime appear to have been fueled by narcissism and a belief that his musical talent absolved him of any need to conform his conduct—no matter how predatory, harmful, humiliating or abusive to others—to the strictures of the law.” A high-profile, six-week trial that called 50 witnesses to the stand last September ended in Kelly, 55, being convicted on all the charges he faced, including kidnapping and forced labor. With “the aid of his inner circle,” prosecutors wrote Wednesday, Kelly was able to use his “fame, money and popularity” to run a criminal enterprise based on his own sexual gratification without punishment for nearly 30 years. Kelly is scheduled to be sentenced on June 29. His attorney has asked that he receive less than 14 years in prison.
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