R Kelly associate jailed for intimidating singer’s accuser with arson attack

The Guardian says Michael Williams, an associate of disgraced R&B star R Kelly, has been sentenced to eight years in prison after intimidating an accuser in Kelly’s trial for sexual abuse.

Williams, a relative of a former publicist for Kelly, had pleaded guilty to arson. In June 2020, he drove 200 miles to where one of Kelly’s accusers, known pseudonymously as Jane, was living, and set a car leased by Jane’s father on fire.

“The vehicle, leased by the victim’s father, was heavily damaged,” prosecutors said during the trial in April this year. “Fire investigators also detected an accelerant along the outside perimeter of the residence. Williams had previously made internet searches about the detonation properties of fertiliser and diesel fuel, witness intimidation and witness tampering, and countries that do not have extradition agreements with the United States.”

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2021/nov/18/r-kelly-associate-jailed-for-intimidating-singers-accuser-with-arson-attack