CHICAGO >> A federal judge Thursday rejected a call from prosecutors to keep R. Kelly behind bars until he is 100, instead telling the Grammy Award-winning R&B singer he would serve all but one of his 20 years on child sex convictions simultaneously with a previous racketeering sentence.

Handed down in a courtroom in Kelly’s hometown of Chicago, the sentence means Kelly could make it out of prison alive, when he is about 80. Prosecutors had asked Judge Harry Leinenweber to sentence him to 25 years — and to not let him begin serving those until after he completed the first 30-year sentence, imposed on him last year in New York.

“The nature of this offense is … horrific,” Leinenweber said in explaining the 20-year sentence. He noted that Kelly’s sexual abuse victims would suffer from his crimes for the rest of their lives. He accepted defense arguments that Kelly might not even make it to 80.

— The Associated Press