R Kelly's Fate In Jury's Hands

R Kelly trial now lays in the hands of the Jurors...

Closing arguments in the R. Kelly trial concluded with strong words. The singer's fate is now in the jury's hands.

The state called her a "victim," the defense called her a "whore," but neither side called her to the stand and her absence may make all the difference.

Kelly's child-pornography trial reached its end yesterday (12/06/2008) when both sides got one last chance to convince the jury with closing arguments.

While the state reviewed the sex tape in open court one last time, Kelly's team continued attacking several females involved in the trial branding them "liars" or "whores".

The state reminded the jury of all the evidence "The background of the tape is in his home. ... So either you believe he's walking around with that duffle bag of [sex tapes], or you believe that someone broke in, shot the background in his house, looped it, and using technology that does not exist and goes undetected by the FBI and faked a tape.

Kelly's team said there was no such bag, and the only person who testified she saw it was Lisa Van Allen, who Adam equated with Satan, quoting 2 Corinthians 11:14: " 'Satan came disguised as an angel of light.'

The family of the girl in question wasn't much better, Adam claimed. If they were as well-meaning as the state claimed in coming forward to make IDs of the girl, why hadn't they done something before? Why didn't they confront Kelly? "Someone would have gone over there, broken his leg," he said, "beat the crap out of him.

Adam also questioned why no one ever noticed anything inappropriate between Kelly and the girl, which he said was proof nothing had ever happened between them. "This wasn't a gardener or the man down the street or a janitor," he said. "This was a 13-year-old girl having sex with a superstar, and she doesn't tell anyone?

And where was she in all of this, he asked, implying her absence itself also confirmed no molestation occurred. "She's just down the street," Adam claimed, "but [the prosecutors] don't go out and bring her in." "Shame on them," Boliker said.

"We don't need to drag that poor child here in court." Boliker likened the case to one of first-degree murder, when the victim can't take the stand to say that he was shot point blank but the evidence proves it for him.

And in this case, Boliker said, enough damage had already been done to the girl and her family. "This is the people of the state of Illinois versus R. Kelly," she said."He is the one who is responsible. This is not a who-did-it; this is a he-did-it.

Deliberations continue today...

Reporting by Jennifer Vineyard