R. Kelly's self-described manager pleads guilty to stalking
R. Kelly’s self-described manager, Donnell Russell, pleaded guilty to stalking on Tuesday.
The man who claims to have advised Kelly entered a guilty plea on 26 July to an interstate stalking charge, Associated Press reports.
Appearing in Brooklyn federal court on Tuesday, Russell was accused of using threats, harassment, and intimidation to silence one of the singer’s sexual abuse victims. Kelly was convicted in 2021 of sex trafficking and racketeering, and was sentenced last month to 30 years in prison.
U.S. Attorney Breon Peace claimed Russell sent threatening text messages to one of the victims and her mother and later shared explicit photos of the victim on the internet.
Prosecutors said Russell’s harassment campaign against the victim lasted from November 2018 through to February 2020, after the woman filed a civil lawsuit against Kelly.
He is scheduled for sentencing on 17 November, when he could face up to five years in prison.
The legal case follows a separate conviction earlier this month which saw Russell found guilty of threatening physical harm through interstate communication, after the self-described manager made a phone call to a Manhattan theatre claiming a shooting was about to occur in the room where documentary series Surviving R. Kelly was slated to be shown.
It resulted in the evacuation of the cinema.
