Witness says R&B star Kelly, girl were in sex tape

By Andrew Stern

CHICAGO (Reuters) - R&B superstar R. Kelly and a girl who described him as her godfather and was about 13 or 14 are the two people on a pornographic tape Kelly is accused of making, the girl's former best friend testified on Wednesday.

Simha Jamison, now 24, said in the second full day of the Grammy Award-winning artist's trial that she recognized her friend Roshona Landfair on the videotape from her face and from a "mullet" haircut the two girls had gotten together.

"I saw (the tape) in late February 2002," said Jamison, a Chicago hair stylist.

"Who did you believe was the female on that tape?" asked prosecutor Shauna Boliker of the Cook County state's attorney's office.

"I believed it was my best friend, Roshona," she replied.

And the man on the tape, which Jamison was shown again on Wednesday before court?

"Her godfather, R. Kelly," she said, explaining that's how Roshona had introduced the singer.

Kelly is charged with 14 counts of videotaping, producing or soliciting child pornography with a 26-minute tape featuring oral sex, masturbation and other explicit acts. If convicted of all charges, the 41-year-old performer, whose given name is Robert Kelly, could be sentenced to up to 15 years in prison.