Former R. Kelly associate claims singer bribed official to marry Aaliyah

It’s one more testimony against the fallen R’n’B star. On the third day of the trial of Robert Kelly, tried in federal court in Brooklyn (New York) for extortion, sexual exploitation of a minor, kidnapping, corruption and forced labor, his former tour manager claimed, Friday, August 20, that the singer had bribed through him an official to obtain false identity documents in order to marry singer Aaliyah, then a minor and died in the Bahamas in August 2001, at age 22, in a plane crash.

“I walked in and said, ‘Hey, do you want to make some money?’ “, said Demetrius Smith, 65, during his testimony.

Mr Smith, who worked for R. Kelly for more than ten years in the 1980s and 1990s, claimed to have given the civil servant $ 500 in exchange for false papers for Aaliyah, then only 15, for the singer. , who was then 27, could marry her.

Demetrius Smith, who testified with assurances of immunity from future prosecution, told jurors that R. Kelly and his associates devised the marriage plan after Aaliyah announced she was pregnant, with the singer fearing that she was pregnant. ‘go to ” jail “.

The manager reportedly advised the star against marrying Aaliyah

R. Kelly believed this marriage would prevent Aaliyah – whose debut album Age Ain’t Nothin ‘but a Number, released in 1994, was produced by R. Kelly – to testify against him one day. It was “To protect himself and protect Aaliyah”, estimated Mr. Smith, recounting that R. Kelly and him had gone to Chicago (Illinois) in full tour for the whirlwind wedding, in 1994, later canceled.

The manager said he advised the star against marrying Aaliyah, telling her that“He couldn’t marry her and [qu’]she was too young ”. “He asked me which side I was on. “