The high profile R Kelly trial was interrupted yesterday after the defence announced they had been approached by a new witness who they wanted to meet. Kelly's lawyers told the courtroom that they had been contacted by a man yesterday morning who claimed to have some important information relating to the trial. Judge Vincent Gaughan agreed to stop the trial for the rest of the day so the man could fly to Chicago from another state and make a deposition. Confirming the temporary postponement to the court, Gaughan observed "I have no idea what's going on", adding that the session will resume later today.
Prior to the news about the new defence witness, the prosecution continued with their case, which, as previously reported, consists so far of bringing forward a load of people who say they know for certain that [a] the man in the sex video at the centre of the case is the R&B star and/or [b] that the girl in the tape is who the prosecution claim it is, and that she would have been around about 13 at the time the vid was made. As previously reported, the video, shown on day one of the trial, shows a man and a young looking girl participating in various sex acts. The prosecution claim the man is Kelly, he denies it, and his lawyers also dispute the identity of the girl.
The latest witness to tell the court that they are sure that the girl in the tape is who the prosecution say it is was a former basketball coach, who said he recognised the female in the video as a girl in a school basketball team which he used to coach. Jacques Conway said the girl was in his basketball team in 2000 and 2001, and that Kelly had come to see her play at the final home game of the year. Estimating that the girl was 14 or 15 in the video, he said he never had any reason to suspect that there was anything inappropriate in Kelly's relationship with the girl, adding that he would have thought the girl would have come to him for help if she had any issues in her personal life.
Prior to Conway's testimony, late Tuesday the prosecution presented their most reluctant witness so far, Bennie Edwards Jr, a relative of the alleged victim who sang in a pop group with her in the late nineties. A video of the family group performing had been show in court earlier that day, mainly as part of a debate as to whether the alleged victim would have had braces on her teeth at the time the video is alleged to have been recorded (and thus making is less likely that it is, in fact, her on the tape). Edwards said that he had only watched a brief moment of the video because he found it too upsetting. He conceded that the participants in the video did look like Kelly and his relative, but, unlike most previous prosecution witnesses, stressed he couldn't be sure.
The temporary postponement of the case yesterday stopped what is expected to be the most controversial part of the trial from happening. The next prosecution witness is a woman who is thought to claim she had a threesome with Kelly and the alleged victim, while said victim was underage. This witness' testimony has already been the subject of much discussion between the judge, the prosecution and the defence – the latter having unsuccessfully tried to prevent the woman from testifying at all. Some reports suggest that the man who approached the defence team yesterday may have evidence that will undermine that woman's testimony, which could prove key to the defence's attempts to convince the jury it is not their client on the tape.
Kelly faces up to fifteen years in jail if found guilty of taping himself engaging in sex acts with a minor. The case continues.