“For years, Robert Sylvester Kelly abused underage girls. By employing a complex scheme to keep victims quiet, he long evaded consequences. In recent years, though, those crimes caught up with him at last,” Judge Amy St. Eve of the 7th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals wrote in the terse, 14-page ruling.

“But Kelly — interposing a statute-of-limitations defense — thinks he delayed the charges long enough to elude them entirely. The statute says otherwise, so we affirm his conviction.”

The appellate court also denied Kelly’s request for resentencing, saying they had no grounds to second-guess the 20-year prison term U.S. District Judge Harry Leinenweber handed down.

Kelly’s attorney, Jennifer Bonjean, told the Chicago Tribune Friday that they were still weighing whether to request a rehearing before the full 7th Circuit panel — a move that is rarely granted.

Meanwhile, Bonjean says she plans to petition the U.S. Supreme Court on the statute of limitations issue, which centers on whether a new law passed after the underlying crimes in Kelly’s case should have been applied.

Kelly, 57, is serving his time at a medium-security facility in Butner, North Carolina. His current release date is Dec. 21, 2045, when he’d be a couple weeks shy of his 79th birthday, federal prison records show.

A federal jury in Chicago convicted Kelly in 2022 on child pornography charges for explicit videos he made of himself and his then 14-year-old goddaughter, “Jane.” Kelly was also found guilty of inappropriate sexual relations with Jane and two other teenage girls, “Pauline” and “Nia.” The jury acquitted Kelly on separate charges of conspiring to rig his prior Cook County child pornography trial.

Kelly is also appealing his conviction in a separate federal case out of New York, where a jury found him guilty of broad racketeering charges. He was sentenced to 30 years in the case; most of his prison term for the Chicago conviction is to be served concurrently.

—Chicago Tribune

Romania trial against Tate brothers can go ahead, court rules

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