R. Kelly has accused prison officials of a shocking murder-for-hire plot in a bid for his release from federal custody, according to reports from the Chicago Sun-Times and Variety.
In an emergency motion filed in Chicago federal court on Tuesday, June 10th, lawyers for the disgraced singer claimed he was targeted by officials at the North Carolina correctional facility where he’s currently serving a 30-year sentence. The document alleges these officials enlisted a leader of the Aryan Brotherhood to murder Kelly in exchange for the inmate’s own early release.
To support the claim, Kelly’s attorneys provided a signed declaration from Mikeal Glenn Stine, a terminally ill inmate who says he was told “to execute R. Kelly” to cover up the alleged theft of privileged attorney/client communications by prison officials.
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Stine stated in the declaration that he was told he would be charged with the murder, but that the mishandling of evidence would prevent a conviction. The opportunity to strike came when he was moved to Kelly’s unit this past March, but Stine claims he changed his mind at the last minute.
“I was prepared to carry out the execution I was directed to complete,” he explained in the declaration. “But, in the moment when I got near Mr. Kelly, I made a different choice. I told him the truth. I told him that I had been sent to kill him. I told him how and by who. And I told him his life was absolutely in danger.”
As the Sun-Times reports, Stine has untreatable cancer with only months left to live. A federal inmate since 1982, his criminal history includes convictions for crimes ranging from drug dealing to bank robbery to a gang sexual assault of a cellmate. He has also been convicted of threatening a federal judge and prosecutor.
In the motion, Kelly is seeking an immediate release from custody to home detention, claiming his “life is threatened by governmental powers that have now sought his literal destruction.”
Defense attorney Beau Brindley also told the Sun-Times that his client is seeking assistance from President Donald Trump. “We believe [Trump] is the only one with both the power and the courage to do it,” Brindley said. “And we will surely seek whatever help he can provide us in this fight.”
Kelly is currently serving a 30-year sentence for his federal sex trafficking conviction in New York. He also received a 20-year sentence for a separate case in Chicago in 2023, 19 years of which are being served concurrently with the New York sentence.