Last week, Kelly was charged for the previous alleged offense of bribing an official to obtain a fake ID so that he could illegally marry late R&B singer, Aaliyah in 1994. It has long been speculated that Kelly secretly married his former protege when she was just 15 years old in 1994. 

This was explored in dream hampton’s explosive Lifetime documentary, Surviving R. Kelly, where Kelly’s former tour manager Demetrius Smith admitted that he had obtained false documents for Kelly, who was 27 at the time, so that he could illegally marry Aaliyah. Smith also detailed the incident in his book. 

RELATED: R. Kelly Faces Charges Of Bribery Related To His Marriage Certificate To Aaliyah

In light of the new charges, Smith confirmed to TMZ on Monday (Dec. 9) that he will go on the record to testify against his former employee. However, Smith said that he doesn’t want to see Kelly go to jail. Speaking directly to the outlet, Smith aired out that he felt Aaliyah’s memory was unnecessarily being brought up when the nature of her relationship to Kelly was an open secret.

“I wrote this story ten years ago about the documents and all of that stuff. It was known back then and all of its coming out now. But, it’s after the fact [and] Aaliyah is not here right now and I really don’t want to bring Aaliyah back up in this. She’s not here and that’s over. They let that go. Her parents didn’t want to have nothing done.”

While Smith was clear that “he still stands [by] words,” the ex-tour manager voiced that “there’s another part that people just don’t realize and understand about this whole thing.” 

“Nobody’s looking at the big picture,” Smith claimed, arguing that Kelly needs to be given mental help instead of having the book thrown at him.

“People just looking locking someone up or creating a case. I think that Robert should get a psych evaluation. I think we should help him more so than hurt him,” he finished.

The latest charge comes on top of the multitude of other federal offenses Kelly is currently facing after he was arrested for sex-crime related charges in July after he was accused of running a racketeering scheme to sexually abuse girls. 

The 52-year-old will go to trial for his Chicago case on April 27, 2020.