R. Kelly’s legal team has filed an emergency motion for his immediate release from federal custody to home detention, alleging that his life is in danger and accusing the government of misconduct.
Kelly’s attorneys claim in a filing reviewed by Variety on Tuesday that they have explicit evidence that officials solicited an inmate to murder him while he was in custody at a federal penitentiary in North Carolina, where he is serving a 30-year prison sentence.
His attorney presented a sworn statement from Mikeal Glenn Stine, a terminally ill inmate, who claimed that officials offered him freedom in his final days in exchange for Kelly’s murder.
According to the filing, officials violated attorney-client privilege by intercepting personal correspondence, and Stine claimed that Kelly and his attorneys intended to reveal damaging information.
Stine stated that officials informed him that he would be charged with Kelly’s murder, but that the evidence would be mishandled and there would be no conviction.
Stine, an Aryan Brotherhood leader, arrived at Kelly’s unit in March and, despite his initial intent to kill him, changed his mind and told Kelly that Bureau of Prisons officials had directed him to carry out his murder.
Kelly’s attorney claims that in June, they learned of a second member of the Aryan Brotherhood who had been ordered by officials to kill both Kelly and Stine. They claim Kelly is in danger because he remains in custody with other Brotherhood members.
“The threat to Mr. Kelly’s life continues each day that no action is taken,” according to the complaint. “More A.B. members are gathering at his facility. More than one person has already been approached to carry out his murder.
One of them will undoubtedly do what Mr. Stine has not done, burying the truth about what occurred in this case alongside Robert Kelly.”
Beau Brindley, Kelly’s attorney, has asked the judge to release him to home detention on a temporary furlough. A spokesperson for the United States Attorney’s Office in Chicago declined Variety’s request for comment.
In September 2021, the singer, whose real name is Robert Sylvester Kelly, was convicted of nine counts under a superseding indictment.
He was charged with violating the Mann Act and racketeering, both of which involved child sexual exploitation. The following June, he received a 30-year prison sentence.
Kelly was sentenced to 20 years in prison for child sex crimes in February 2023, with the judge ordering that all but one year be served concurrently with his previous 30-year sentence.
In February, an appeals court upheld Kelly’s racketeering and sex trafficking convictions, as well as his 30-year prison sentence.
The court rejected his claims that the trial evidence was insufficient and that the trial judge made incorrect decisions.
