R.Kelly's former backup singer Sparkle testified on Thursday in his child pornography trial. She positively identified the R&B singer as the man performing lewd acts with a minor on the sex tape. Sparkle also testified that she introduced her relative to the singer when she was 12 or 13 years old. Watch Sparkle sing the song "Be Careful" with her former mentor R.Kelly.
Right after the lunch break in the R. Kelly trial, the dessert came in the form of testimony from R&B singer and former Kelly protege Stephanie "Sparkle" Edwards. If the Grammys had a category for courtroom testimony, she might win Best Witness.
Edwards, best known for the 1998 duet "Be Careful" with Kelly, testified Thursday that she herself should have been a little more careful when she introduced the alleged victim--a relative--to the singer.
For more than an hour and half, Edwards testified about how her friendship and profitable professional relationship with Kelly was undermined by betrayal.
It all began in 2001 with a phone call, she said.
On the other end of the line was a lawyer who said he had a videotape of the alleged victim performing lewd acts with someone. The lawyer's assistant rushed the tape over to her apartment for a positive ID, she testified. He popped the tape in the VCR and asked her if it was her relative.
Edwards told him the female on the videotape was her relative.
Edwards testified that she first met Kelly in 1989 when he was working in the studio with Billy Ocean. She had been singing in her family's gospel music group and working at Allstate Insurance. She would later marry a member of Public Announcement, the group that backed Kelly in his early days. She sang background vocals on the late R&B singer Aaliyah's debut album, "Age Ain't Nothing But A Number."
You may recall that Kelly married Aaliyah when she was 15, a union that was reportedly annulled.
Edwards testified that she signed to Kelly's record label, Rockland Records, and began work in 1996 on her eponymous album. It was shortly after then, Edwards said, that she introduced the alleged victim, an aspiring rapper, to Kelly when the girl was 12 or 13. She testified that she took the girl to Kelly's studio and later to his home.
"He liked her spirit. She was a very jolly person at the time, very personable, a little tomboyish. She was my heart," Edwards said, her voice cracking as she talked about the once-close relationship she had with the girl. source
R Kelly ain't never going to jail. They need to let him pay off whoever needs to be paid off and be done with it.
Posted by: LaLaFuFu dotcom | May 23, 2008 at 01:54 PM