A minister who officiated R. Kelly’s illegal marriage to singer Aaliyah told a Brooklyn federal court Wednesday that the nuptials took place in a hotel suite with the couple wearing “matching trot suits “.
Nathan Edmond, 73, said he officiated clandestine weddings as a favor to a friend and did not know who the performers were, according to The Daily Beast.
“I didn’t think it was anyone special and I didn’t understand it at all,” Edmond told the jurors of Kelly’s sex trafficking process.
The two singers had one leg of their jogging suits rolled up to their knees during the Aug. 31, 1994 escape, which lasted “about ten minutes or less,” Edmond said, according to the media.
Three more men were in the hotel room, one of whom addressed the newly ordained minister with a non-disclosure agreement, which “made me laugh,” Edmond reportedly said.
“The printed paper was not worth it,” Edmond told the court, adding that at the time an NDA “should have been much more airtight than that,” before agreeing not to talk about the wedding.
Jurors were reportedly given the marriage license, calling Edmund the “eldest,” who erroneously claimed Aaliyah was 18 years old.
Prosecutors alleged that Kelly, 54, bribed an Illinois official to obtain a false care ID after fearing the deceased singer was pregnant, and marriage is a key part of her case, as they try to convict him of embezzlement, kidnapping and sexual exploitation of children. .
Former Kelly tour director Demetrius Smith told the court last month that the defendant’s relationship with Aaliyah began after he began tutoring in the early 1990s and produced his album. debut, dubiously titled “Age is nothing more than a number.” until the power outlet.
“She just thought they were too playful, too nice … he was seducing her,” Smith said, adding that the marriage alleviated Kelly’s worries that she would go to jail if she was pregnant.
“It simply came to our notice then. It was bad, “said Smith.
Earlier in the week, a defendant named “Addie” testified that she was sexually assaulted by the “Ignition” singer just two days after her marriage.
The then 17-year-old said the attack occurred after a concert in Miami, which she attended in hopes of seeing Aayliah, according to The Daily Beast.
R Kelly, whose real name is Robert, has pleaded not guilty and has denied allegations of wrongdoing related to his marriage to Aayliah, who died in a 2001 plane crash.