R. Kelly trial: defense rests case after third day of testimony from co-defendant and former manager Derrel McDavid

Defense attorneys rested their case in R. Kelly’s federal trial in Chicago on Friday, after a third day of testimony from the singer’s co-defendant and business manager, Derrel McDavid, who prosecutors suggested had significant financial interest in protecting Kelly’s reputation amid sexual abuse claims in the late 1990s and early 200s.

McDavid spent more than 14 hours on the witness stand over three days, repeatedly telling jurors he had no reason to believe Kelly’s accusers, who claimed he’d sexually abused them when they were girls. He testified that he believed Kelly’s accusers were simply trying to extort him.

He also has said, at the time of Kelly’s child pornography trial in 2008, at which he was acquitted, he believed the sex tape allegedly showing him having sex with a 14-year-old girl was a fake.

But at the end of McDavid’s second day of testimony, as his lead defense attorney was wrapping up his direct examinaiton, McDavid said it wasn’t until the current federal trial in Chicago that he began to have doubts about Kelly’s innocence, saying he’s learned a lot of things he had no idea about in 2008.

“As I stand here today, I’m embarrassed, sad,” McDavid said.

McDavid said he “absolutely” wanted to believe Kelly through the end of that 2008 trial, because he loved him.

When federal prosecutors got their chance to finally question McDavid on Thursday, they suggested he was too close to Kelly during the years he worked for the singer to be ignorant of his actions, and noted he had significant financial interest in keeping Kelly’s reputation clean.

Prosecutors pointed out McDavid was fully aware Kelly was settling multiple lawsuits accusing him of sexual misconduct, and suggested McDavid was interested only in protecting Kelly’s reputation and his own pocketbook, rather than getting to the truth of those cases. McDavid angrily denied that.

Kelly, McDavid, and former Kelly assistant Milton “June” Brown face federal charges accusing them of conspiring to cover up Kelly’s alleged sexual abuse of children by buying back incriminating videotapes, and paying off or intimidating witnesses at his 2008 trial on child pornography charges. McDavid was the only defendant to take the stand at the trial.

During the trial, jurors have seen snippets from three different videos that allegedly show Kelly having sex with his 14-year-old goddaughter, “Jane,” who has testified that Kelly sexually abused her hundreds of times when she was a girl.

Jane and her parents denied the sexual abuse claims for years, but during the trial she and her mother testified Kelly and his team pressured them to lie about it, and paid them off to keep silent.

After defense attorneys rested their case Friday afternoon, prosecutors said they were considering presenting a possible rebuttal witness, but U.S. District Judge Harry Leinenweber said he’s under pressure to get the trial finished, and declined to give prosecutors more time to prepare for a rebuttal.

Closing arguments are now set for Monday morning.

Kelly already has been sentenced to 30 years in prison after a conviction on sex trafficking and racketeering charges at his federal trial in New York last year. If convicted of the federal charges in Chicago, he could face decades more in prison.

He also still faces sexual assault and sexual abuse charges in Cook County, involving four women. Those trials have been delayed multiple times due to the pandemic.

Read more about Friday’s testimony below