R. Kelly’s former supervisor was sentenced Thursday to twenty months in jail after pleading responsible to prices that he stalked considered one of Kelly’s sexual abuse victims in an effort to maintain her silent.
Donnell Russell pleaded responsible in July to utilizing threats, harassment and intimidation to silence one of many ladies abused by Kelly, who was convicted final 12 months on intercourse trafficking and racketeering prices and sentenced to 30 years in jail in June.
Forward of his sentencing, Russell’s legal professionals argued he ought to obtain solely probation, arguing he’d led an “in any other case exemplary life” earlier than “crossing the road in his makes an attempt to curry favor with Robert Kelly.”
However prosecutors strongly disagreed, citing dozens of prior arrests and calling his conduct “abhorrent.” They requested for twenty-four to 30 months, saying it was wanted to discourage such conduct: “If victims are involved that any such conduct is not going to be adequately punished, it may chill victims from pursuing authorized treatments and from cooperating with regulation enforcement investigations.”
Following Thursday’s sentencing, Russell’s lawyer didn’t instantly return a request for remark from Billboard.
Prosecutors say Russell, a self-described supervisor, advisor and pal to Kelly, used “reprehensible” techniques in opposition to the unnamed sufferer after she filed a civil lawsuit in opposition to the singer in 2018. They included sending threatening messages to the girl and her mom, after which publishing express photographs of her on the web.
“Only a pattern. We’ll search prison prices. You’ve been warned,” Russell wrote in a December 2018 message to the sufferer and her mom, referring to the nude photos.
Separate from the stalking prices, Russell was additionally convicted in July of creating a cellphone risk that gunfire was about to happen at a crowded Manhattan theater that was getting ready for a premiere of Lifetime’s Surviving R. Kelly collection. The cellphone risk prompted a name to police and an evacuation that pressured the premier to be canceled.
Russell awaits sentencing subsequent week on these prices.
