CHICAGO (AP) — A childhood friend of the woman prosecutors say appears in an explicit video at the center of R. Kelly's child pornography trial testified Wednesday that she recognizes her friend as the one in the tape.

The R&B superstar is accused of videotaping himself having sex with a girl as young as 13. His attorneys have said Kelly is not on the tape. The alleged victim, who is now 23, also denies she's the person in the video.

Prosecutors showed the footage within hours of opening statements Tuesday and now they're working to prove their claim that Kelly and the alleged victim are indeed in the video.

On Wednesday, Simha Jamison, 24, said she and the alleged victim were best friends for about 10 years until their junior year in high school — and that she knows her friend's face quite well.

When prosecutors asked Jamison if she recognized the man in the tape, she leaned forward in the witness stand, peeked around the corner of the judge's bench and identified Kelly.

She testified she and her friend visited Kelly at his recording studio and at a Chicago basketball court dozens of times, starting when they were around the age of 12.

Her friend first introduced her to Kelly as "her godfather," Jamison said, adding that the singer frequently gave her friend cash gifts — "no less than $100 and no more than $500."

She said the two also visited the home where authorities say the sex tape was filmed. Jamison said she saw the tape in 2002 and again just before testifying.

Jamison remained insistent under tough cross-examination later in the day from defense attorney Sam Adam Jr. He pressed her about whether the body of the female in the video looked too mature for a young teenager.

Adam said the reason the alleged victim never told the witness she was having a sexual relationship with Kelly was because there wasn't one and "because it's not her on the tape."

"Are you asking or telling me?" Jamison shot back.

Adam also showed pictures of a shirtless Kelly and asked Jamison how she knew it was his body on the video.

"His head was attached to it," she responded, drawing laughter from several jurors.

During the cross-examination, the defense revealed its strategy may be to suggest Kelly's image was computer-generated. "Something could have been done to put a different head on that body," Adam said. He also referred to movies where characters had been digitally altered.

The 41-year-old Kelly, who has pleaded not guilty, faces up to 15 years if convicted.

The singer, who appeared grim-faced Tuesday, looked more relaxed during testimony Wednesday, listening carefully to the witnesses. Jurors also appeared more at ease, taking detailed notes during some five hours of testimony.

The prosecution's first few witnesses were geared toward identifying the alleged victim on the tape that prosecutors say was made between Jan. 1, 1998, and Nov. 1, 2000.

An aunt and an uncle of the alleged victim on Wednesday also identified the female on the tape as their niece.

Jamison's father, Peter Thomas, testified that the alleged victim's involvement in the video was the talk of their neighborhood. When his daughter heard about it in 2002, he said she would cry herself to sleep but wouldn't discuss it.

He watched the video for the first time before testifying Wednesday and identified the girl, guessing that she must have been about 14 or 15 in the video.

The most highly charged cross-examination came after an aunt of the alleged victim described how she and other relatives viewed and discussed the tape in late 2001, several weeks before someone mailed the tape to the Chicago Sun-Times and the newspaper turned it over to authorities.

Adam repeatedly asked Delores Gibbon, a Chicago police officer, why she didn't immediately go to authorities with the tape if she suspected it was child pornography.

Gibbon said she was torn between her job and concern for the alleged victim and her parent.

At one point, Adam pounded his fist, saying the aunt didn't go to authorities because someone in the family wanted to "get back at Mr. Kelly" for a business dispute and hoped to "extort Kelly" in a possible civil lawsuit.

The aunt said she didn't know anything about an alleged extortion plot.

R. Kelly won a Grammy in 1997 for the gospel-tinged "I Believe I Can Fly," and also is known for such songs as "Bump N' Grind," "Ignition," and "Trapped in the Closet," a multipart saga about the sexual secrets of a lively and ever-expanding cast of characters.

Source: AP