R. Kelly’s Manager Convicted For Threatening To Shoot Up ‘Surviving R. Kelly’ Screening

R. Kelly has just won a little court battle against the federal government. According to recent reports, former R&B artist and convicted sexual predator R. Kelly is no longer under suicide watch. The former manager of R. Kelly was recently found guilty of charges related to a firearms threat he made in December 2018 targeting a Surviving R. Kelly screening.

Rolling Stone reports that federal authorities earlier discovered that Donnell Russell made the threat to the New York theatre from his own Chicago home. Russell was convicted guilty of threatening physical harm through interstate communication, but his conspiracy allegation was dropped. When Russell is sentenced in November 2022, he might spend up to five years in prison.

Russell called the theatre and threatened to “shoot up the place” if the showing went on. The private screening of Surviving R. Kelly at New York’s NeueHouse Madison Square was attended by some of Kelly’s victims and their families. It was evacuated and cancelled in December 2018. Assistant US Attorney Lara Pomerantz revealed during the three-day trial.

The call was short. The defendant was to the point. And he was terrifying. Someone at the event had a gun and was going to shoot up the place. He wanted to keep these women quiet and he succeeded. His threat worked.

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Russell’s fake “cease and desist” letter to NeueHouse was ignored and attempts to contact New York law enforcement were unsuccessful. Federal agents were able to trace the unsealed complaint claims that Russell made the threatening phone call back to a landline associated with Russell’s home address in Chicago. After being convicted guilty of all charges of racketeering and sex trafficking against him at his Brooklyn federal trial last year, Kelly was sentenced to 30 years in prison last month.

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