Jailed singer R Kelly is reportedly friends with a man charged with opening fire at a New York subway station last month.
Three sources told the New York Daily News about the friendship between Kelly, 55, and Brooklyn subway shooting suspect Frank James, 62, at Metropolitan Detention Center, where both men are incarcerated. Kelly was convicted last of federal sex trafficking and racketeering, while James is awaiting trial on federal terrorism charges.
“They talk about TV shows. They go out to rec together. They’re buds,” one of the sources said.
Frank reportedly has a cellmate while Kelly has his own cell.
Another source told the Daily News, “Both do get along. They actually sit together and eat together.”
On April 12, Frank reportedly released gas canisters and fired more than 30 shots while aboard a subway train at 36th Street station. He was apprehended the following day in Manhattan.
In September 2021, Kelly was found guilty of running a decades-old sex trafficking ring that targeted women, men, girls, and boys. He also faces 13 federal counts in Illinois for various charges, including child pornography and obstruction of justice.
On the state level, Kelly is facing 21 sex-related criminal charges in Cook County, Illinois. Last August, authorities in Minnesota charged Kelly with two counts of prostitution with a person younger than 18 in connection with an alleged 2001 incident.
Kelly, who faces life in prison, will be sentenced on June 15. His federal trial in Illinois begins in August.
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[Featured image: R. Kelly/Chicago Police Department; Frank James/NYPD]
