Says the alleged victim was 12 or 13 at the time
A family friend of the alleged victim in the sex tape at the center of R. Kelly's child pornography trial testified Tuesday that the young female in the videotape could have been about 12 or 13 years old at the time.
Tjada Burnett said she recognized the alleged victim by her "cheeks, her nose, her facial structure."
A childhood friend of the alleged victim also identified the young female as the person who prosecutors say was on the 27-minute tape, which they claim was made between Jan. 1, 1998, and Nov. 1, 2000. The say the young female in the tape was born in September 1984.
Kelly, 41, is charged with 14 counts of child pornography for allegedly videotaping himself having sex with an underage girl. He has pleaded not guilty and faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted.
Kelly's attorneys have said he is not on the tape, even noting that the singer has a mole on his back and that the man on the tape does not. Also, the alleged victim, now 23, has denied she is on the tape.
Under cross-examination, a defense attorney asked Burnett whether the alleged victim had braces at the time the tape was said to have been made and showed the jury a photo that appeared to show her wearing braces. The young female in the videotape did not appear to be wearing braces.
Burnett testified that the alleged victim had braces sometime between 1997 and '99, but could not be more specific.
Kelly lawyers also accused Raven Gengler of lying to help the prosecution's case when she testified that she's certain the girl on the videotape was her friend. Gengler, 22, said she first saw the video after downloading it several years ago from an internet file-sharing site in 2001, after the tape had become the talk of her neighborhood.
"You know the difference between a truth and a lie. And you lied before, didn't you?" defense attorney Sam Adam Jr. said. "I'd never lie," Gengler replied, pulling nervously on her long hair.
The trial is in its second week of testimony. Within hours of their opening statements last week, prosecutors entered the black VHS tape into the record as "People's Exhibit No. 1" and played it in open court.
Last week, several witnesses, including a relative of the alleged victim, testified that they recognized her in the videotape.
