R. Kelly‘s manager was convicted Friday (July 22) after making a phone threat of gunfire at a crowded theater in Manhattan.
Donnell Russell was convicted of threatening physical harm through interstate communication, according to Billboard. The jury rejected a conspiracy count.
The Manhattan theater was scheduled to show the December 2018 documentary about R. Kelly’s sexual abuse of women and girls, the news outlet reported. The premiere was canceled as a result of the threat.
Phone records showed the threatening phone calls came from Russell’s home in Chicago. He spent the day trying to stop the Surviving R. Kelly documentary from being shown. He called the theater nine times and threatened to sue. A theater employee said a “deep-voiced man who sounded ‘like a thug’ warned that ‘someone had a gun and they were going to shoot up the place,’” Billboard reported. The manager apparently had a co-conspirator inside the movie theater who had a text that said police could come to the theater. Jurors did not believe the alleged co-conspirator was aware of Russell’s plan.
Billboard reported Russell was motivated “by a desire to keep income flowing from the lucrative career of Kelly,” who was recently sentenced to 30 years in prison.
Russell’s sentencing was set for November 21.
