Videotape features in first week of R. Kelly's trial

Sex tapes feature in 1st week of R. Kelly child porn trial

One sex tape, an unflappable witness, a crying one and a lower-back mole.

Those were among the people and things that took center stage after opening arguments in the long-delayed R. Kelly child pornography trial finally began -- with impassioned accusations and defenses, and even occasional laughter.

Speculation as the trial began was that prosecutors might show the 27-minute videotape at the center of the case against the R&B superstar days or weeks later, perhaps allowing jurors to brace themselves for the sexually explicit footage.

They opted instead to cut to the chase.

Within just hours of their opening statements last week, prosecutors entered the black VHS tape into the record as "People's Exhibit No. 1," dimmed the courtroom lights and slipped the tape into a video player next to the jury's box.

The 41-year-old is charged with 14 counts of child pornography for allegedly videotaping himself having sex with a girl who prosecutors say was as young as 13. He has pleaded not guilty and faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted.

There was no testimony on Friday, and the trial resumes Tuesday.

The defense won't begin calling their own witnesses for at least several weeks. But the Grammy Award winner's lawyers revealed what will be at least part of their strategy: it's the mole defense.

Defensive attorney Sam Adam Jr. showed pictures of Kelly's lower back on Tuesday during opening statements in the stately Chicago courtroom, drawing the jury's attention to a mole the size of a fingernail.

They should look for it when they watched the videotape, he said.

"There is no mole on his back," Adam added, his voice booming, because Kelly "isn't that man on the tape."

As prosecutors hit the play button on the video player later that day, the jurors barely moved and rarely took their eyes off a 4-by-4-foot monitor.

What they saw will be the focus of virtually all the proceedings' testimony:

A man has sex with a young female, who is naked for most of the recording -- save for a necklace with a cross dangling from it. She is often blank-faced, impassive. The man speaks to her in a hushed, monotone voice, and she calls him "Daddy."

One of the jurors, a Baptist preacher's wife, held her hand over her mouth in a scene when the man urinates on the female.

A grim, intent Kelly watched the video on a small monitor on the defense table, only occasionally averting his eyes. Later in the week, he looked more relaxed, appearing to follow the witness testimony closely.

In her opening statements, prosecutor Shauna Boliker, referring to Kelly by his birth name, said the videotape showed "vile, disturbing and disgusting sex acts ... choreographed, produced and starred in by Robert Kelly."

Defense attorney Adam agreed -- in part.

"What happens on that tape is disgusting, but it's not Robert," he said.

Defense attorneys say the alleged victim, now 23 years old, also denies she's the person in the video.

The prosecution spent much of the week trying to show that the alleged victim is who they say she is.

Their most impressive witness was a 24-year-old hair stylist, a childhood friend of the alleged victim.

Simha Jamison, a large turquoise-colored ring on one finger, remained composed under cross-examination, saying she had no doubt the female in the video was the girl she described as her best friend in school.

At one point, defense attorney Adam raised his voice, saying the reason the alleged victim never told Jamison she'd had a sexual relationship with Kelly was because there wasn't one and "because it's not her on the tape."

Jamison shot back: "Are you asking or telling me?"

Later, Adam showed Jamison pictures of a shirtless Kelly and asked how she knew it was his body on the video.

"His head was attached to it," she responded, prompting laughter from several jurors.

The most heated exchanges came the next day, when a one-time artistic collaborator with Kelly described how she introduced Kelly to the alleged victim, a relative of hers, when the girl was around 12 or 13 years old.

Stephanie Edwards, who is best known for the 1998 duet "Be Careful" with Kelly, began to cry when she described the girl as "her heart."

She clashed with defense attorney Ed Genson during cross-examination, the two talking over each other.

When Genson said Edwards had had a falling out with Kelly and may have been trying to squeeze money out of him, Edwards snapped, "Sweetie, I'm not trying to get money out of this."

"I'm not your sweetie!" a visibly angry Genson shouted into a courtroom microphone.

Kelly got at least one notable shout of support from a woman in a hallway outside the stately courtroom on Thursday.

As jurors stepped out of an elevator that morning, 48-year-old Debra Triplet screamed "Free R. Kelly" at them.

Her show of support came at a price: Police took her away in handcuffs and the judge in Kelly's case ordered the mother of three and grandmother of six be held on contempt charges in lieu of $50,000 bond.