R. Kelly asks court for a prison break, alleging officials want a racist gang to execute him
- Share via
An attorney for R. Kelly is painting a picture of corruption and deceit among the ranks of the federal Bureau of Prison’s staff and inmates, alleging there is a target on his client’s back that can be removed only if the disgraced R&B singer is sent home.
Beau Brindley is asking that Kelly be placed in temporary home confinement while serving his decades-long sex trafficking sentences. He alleges that a trio of prison officials plotted to have the singer killed by a terminally ill member of the Aryan Brotherhood who — except for a brief stint when he escaped from prison — has been in federal custody since 1982.
Prosecutors say John Stinson, Kenneth Johnson and Francis Clement will probably spend the rest of their lives in federal prison after being convicted of orchestrating murders and racketeering schemes from California lockups.
An emergency motion for that temporary furlough was filed Tuesday in federal court, and documents were obtained and reviewed by The Times.
In addition to detailing the supposed murder plot, the motion alleges that Kelly’s private communications while in custody were “stolen” from him by people working with various prosecutors who took the information and used it against the singer at trial. One witness never intended to testify against Kelly, the motion says, until she was approached by one of the people who allegedly stole those communications.
The motion alleges that three prison officials, including a warden and an assistant warden, conspired to have Kelly killed by another inmate, Mikeal Glenn Stine. Stine, a self-proclaimed “Commissioner” of the Aryan Brotherhood who joined the racist gang in prison, said in a declaration that an official who was not one of the wardens had previously directed him to order multiple “assaults, beatings, and killings of inmates.” That official approached him in February 2023 about ending Kelly’s life.
Stine said he first met that official during the 13 years he spent at a federal Supermax prison in Colorado, and that the alleged victims were targeted because they had been making things rough for the BOP. Stine said he had “ordered multiple assaults and murders” at the official’s requestand at various federal prisons, and he participated in some of the attacks himself.
A sex-trafficking case that put singer R. Kelly behind bars is being built in much the same way against Sean “Diddy” Combs, Kelly’s prosecutor says.
The official told him in 2023 that there was a high-profile inmate in North Carolina “whose high-priced lawyers are going to expose a bunch of damaging information that will harm other Bureau of Prisons officers and higher-ups” and that he wanted Stine “to help to eliminate the problem,” according to Stine.
After asking Stine if he knew who R. Kelly was, the declaration said, the official told him “that Kelly is a rapist. He told me Kelly raped little white girls. He told me Kelly was scum. And he told me that Kelly was someone the A.B. would want gone. It is R. Kelly who poses the threat to the BOP.”
Stine said he was transferred to North Carolina in October 2023. He was in the medical unit from then until March 2025 when he finally wound up in Kelly’s unit, the court document said.
Stine, who says he has terminal cancer, said he was told that once he got into Kelly’s unit he should “execute” the singer. He said he was told he would be charged for the murder, but that evidence would be “mishandled” and he wouldn’t be convicted. Then, Stine said, he would be “permitted to escape” while in transit, as he had done when he escaped previously, and could live out his final months as a “free man.” Stine said he agreed to the deal but changed his mind after keeping an eye on Kelly for a few weeks.
A federal jury has convicted R&B star R. Kelly of child pornography charges in his hometown of Chicago.
Instead of killing the singer, Stine said in his May 19 declaration, “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.”
Stine said that a prison execution was nothing new for him, but killing Kelly “to hide misconduct by [Bureau of Prisons] officers and government officials is something that should not happen. ... And it is going to happen to him if no one takes action.” He stated that time was “of the essence.”
Kelly’s attorney, Brindley, said in his motion that his client’s “continued incarceration while he knows his life is in jeopardy constitutes cruel and unusual punishment,” a violation of his constitutional rights. The attorney said Kelly has already been attacked in prison by others.
In his motion, Brindley accused the U.S. Attorney’s Office of knowingly conspiring to use information protected by attorney-client privilege, including information procured from one of Kelly’s cellmates. That cellmate provided a declaration stating he had stolen privileged legal documents and delivered them to a BOP investigator who copied them and sent them for use by prosecutors in both of Kelly’s trials.
Wendy Williams has thoughts about Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs and the sex abuse and trafficking allegations that have eclipsed his career. He was arrested last month.
“This conspiracy involved the Bureau of Prisons and was apparently orchestrated by the U.S. Attorney’s Office,” the motion says. “There is no room left to speculate about some way that the U.S. Attorney’s Office did not know about the corrupt conduct of these cooperating persons.”
According to the motion, Kelly got a call from a prison official in North Carolina, who warned him that the government knew his attorneys had been meeting with the cellmate who provided the declaration.
“The official then advised Mr. Kelly that he was in danger and that Mr. Kelly needed to be careful. The BOP official intimated that Mr. Kelly was not safe in Bureau of Prisons custody,” the motion says. “The BOP official further advised that Mr. Kelly should avoid the mess hall.”
The motion alleges that Kelly was already attacked by another inmate who, after the fact, wrote a letter saying had put him up to it. It says Stine approached Kelly and came clean about the alleged murder plot on April 11.
“On June 6, 2025, the defense learned that a second member of the Aryan Brotherhood, who is housed at FCI Butner, had just been approached by [a BOP official] and directed to carry out the execution of Mr. Kelly and Mr. Stine,” the motion states. Methods of murder that were discussed allegedly included mixing poison into the food at the chow hall and in the commissary.
“Time is now of the essence,” Brindley wrote. “It is with these breathtaking facts in mind that Mr. Kelly asks this Court for an extraordinary legal remedy: his release from Bureau of Prisons custody.”
Admitting that Kelly was asking for an “extraordinary” remedy to his problem, the attorney cited the allegations in his motion and offered a sweeping indictment of the federal prison system.
R. Kelly’s lawyer explains why the R&B artist was put on suicide watch after being sentenced this week to 30 years in prison.
“The circumstances set forth above are as extraordinary as they are terrifying,” Brindley wrote. “Incarcerated persons have no redress for protection outside of the guards that are hired to keep them safe. When the hierarchy under which those guards work has sanctioned and ordered an inmate’s execution, then there is no safety for that inmate.
“The declaration of Mr. Stine shows that inmate murder at the behest of prison officials is neither new nor uncommon. It happens regularly and without consequence. Hence, the threat to Mr. Kelly’s life continues each day that no action is taken.”
The biggest entertainment stories
Get our big stories about Hollywood, film, television, music, arts, culture and more right in your inbox as soon as they publish.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
