Donnell Russell, who briefly managed disgraced R&B star, R. Kelly, was sentenced to a year in prison for his threat against a screening of Surviving R. Kelly in 2018. According to the Associated Press, Russell was sentenced Monday (December 19) after pleading guilty in July to stalking and harassing the singer’s victims shortly after being convicted of phoning in the shooting threat against a New York theater screening the Lifetime docuseries. Russell claimed someone at the event had a gun, leading to the theater being evacuated.
However, the docuseries was still widely aired, leading to a surge of interest in bringing R. Kelly to justice. The end result was two convictions — one in New York for trafficking and racketeering, the other in Chicago for child porn and other charges — that will see Kelly serve 30 years in prison.
Russell, meanwhile, will serve his latest sentence concurrently with the one for harassment, 20 months in prison. Another associate of Kelly’s, Michael Williams, was sentenced to eight years in prison last year for arson and witness intimidation after setting one victim’s family car on fire. Kelly plans on appealing his own sentence with the help of Bill Cosby’s former lawyer. Meanwhile, Lifetime recently debuted the trailer for the upcoming third part of Surviving R. Kelly, which will cover the aftermath of both trials.