-Brittany Hennis-
Cousins!
If the R. Kelly case couldn’t get any weirder, now a male from Georgia once connected to him was sentenced to eight years in federal prison for torching a vehicle belonging to one of the singer’s accusers to silence her!
Yahoo news reports, Michael Williams, who is a relative of the R&B singer’s publicists, pleaded guilty in April to one count of arson in U.S. District Court in New York, where Kelly was later convicted of racketeering conspiracy.
According to the plea by William’s prosecutors, he committed the arson to intimidate and threaten the victim, identity will remain anonymous. The victim was not in court Wednesday, but prosecutors read a statement from her calling the crime “not only vicious but disturbing”.
Michael admitted using gasoline to set fire to an SUV in June 2020, that was parked outside a Florida residence where the victim was residing. Her mother, who was in the home along with two grandchildren, reported hearing an explosion and seeing someone running from the scene “whose arm appeared to be lit on fire,” says court records.
Investigators later discovered accelerants surrounding the perimeter of the house, including Williams who intended to set fire to the home as well. He was interrupted when his arm caught on fire, prosecutors wrote in a sentencing memo, asking for at least six years behind bars. Three weeks after the incident, Williams used Google to conduct research on witness intimidation, tampering with a witness, and how to fertilize a bomb. He was later arrested in August of 2020 at a hotel in Florida.
Michael Williams, one of the three men charged in federal court in New York last summer, with attempting to intimidate, harass or pay off alleged victims in Kelly’s case. The other men are Richard Arline Jr and Donell Russell. Both are currently awaiting sentencing and for a trial date.
Now the plot of this R. Kelly scandal just gets thicker and thicker as the days go on.