Kentrell Dominique Gwynn, a former bodyguard who was arrested last year in a July 1, 2017, shootout inside the Power Ultra Lounge in downtown Little Rock, on Wednesday scheduled a change-of-plea hearing for Sept. 5 in federal court.
Gwynn and rapper Finese2Tymes, also known as Ricky Hampton, were arrested together on July 2, 2017, in Birmingham, Ala., where they went after leaving Little Rock so that Hampton could put on another concert. Both men are from Memphis.
Gwynn, who is facing two federal gun charges, was originally scheduled to be tried alongside Hampton beginning March 19. But Hampton pleaded guilty March 5 to being a felon in possession of a firearm in an incident outside a Forrest City nightclub early June 25, a week before the Power Ultra Lounge, and Gwynn's trial was postponed until Sept. 17.
Gwynn, also known as "Dirt," faces charges of providing a machine-gun style pistol to a convicted felon, Hampton, between May 26, 2017, and July 2, 2017, and possessing and transporting a .40-caliber handgun while working for Hampton between May 2017 and July 2, 2017.
Gwynn also faces 10 aggravated-assault charges in Pulaski County Circuit Court in connection with shots fired inside the Little Rock nightclub. Authorities said a .40-caliber pistol found in a thigh holster Gwynn was wearing when the Mercedes he was driving was stopped in Birmingham matched a shell casing found at the scene of the Little Rock shooting.
In the shooting, 25 people were wounded in the crossfire of what police later said was gang warfare, and three others were injured trying to escape from the second-story nightclub at 220 W. Sixth St., which permanently closed after the shooting. No one was killed.
Hampton wasn't charged in the Little Rock nightclub shooting, but others are charged in state court with shooting inside the club.
Authorities have said that the machine-gun style pistol, known as a "Draco," that Hampton admitted holding on June 25, 2017, outside the Forrest City nightclub, Club Envy, after he had finished performing, was purchased by Gwynn.
A female motorist told authorities that she saw Hampton standing in the doorway of a car holding the gun and screaming at her to get out of the way as his entourage moved toward her car about 2:45 a.m. outside the club.
Just after she was able to turn her car around and start to drive off, authorities said, the back windshield of her car shattered, and her neck was grazed by a bullet.
In pleading guilty to "upping the Draco" that night outside the club, Hampton insisted he didn't pull the trigger.
Hampton, who like Gwynn was 25 at the time of his arrest, was to be sentenced June 18, but the sentencing was postponed, and a new date hadn't been set as of Wednesday.
Metro on 08/23/2018