Ricky Hampton, a Memphis rapper who was performing under the name Finese2Tymes when a shootout broke out last summer inside the Power Ultra Lounge in downtown Little Rock, pleaded guilty Monday morning to a federal firearms charge on which he was facing a March 19 jury trial.
The charge isn't related to Hampton's performance early July 1 at the now-closed nightclub at 220 W. Sixth St., in which 25 people were wounded in the crossfire of gang warfare and others were injured trying to escape. Hampton hasn't been charged in that incident.
His charge stems from an incident a week earlier, in the early hours of June 25, outside Club Envy in Forrest City, where Hampton had just finished performing. A female motorist's back windshield was shattered by gunfire, and her neck was grazed by a bullet, as she sped away after becoming trapped in a traffic jam while trying to leave the club.
She told authorities, and cell-phone videos taken by witnesses and uploaded to Facebook later corroborated, that Hampton was standing in a doorway of a car, holding an AK-47 style pistol and screaming at her to get out of the way, as his entourage moved toward her car about 2:45 a.m. Just after she was able to turn her car around and start to drive off, the glass shattered.
The woman told authorities she saw Hampton point the gun at her and believes he fired the shot, but Hampton continued Monday to deny that he pulled the trigger. He pleaded guilty only to possessing the gun that, as a convicted felon, he was prohibited from having.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Chris Givens told U.S. District Judge Leon Holmes on Monday that the gun, known as a Draco, that Hampton was pictured holding up, as if to shoot, appears to be the same one that Hampton is shown holding or standing near in other videos made last summer. They include videos taken on a street corner in Marianna, posted on YouTube and one recorded May 26 and 27 in Alabama, Givens said.
Armed with an arrest warrant issued in St. Francis County that accused Hampton of aggravated assault in the Forrest City shooting, federal marshals arrested him about 2 a.m. July 2 outside the Side Effects club in Birmingham, Ala., where he was scheduled to perform.
The marshals seized the Draco and a .40-caliber pistol from a Mercedes in which Hampton was riding and that his longtime friend and bodyguard, Kentrell Dominique Gwynn, also 25 and from Memphis, was driving. Gwynn was soon indicted on federal charges of providing a firearm to a convicted felon and providing armed security to a felon. He is still facing the March 19 trial date, and is also facing 10 counts of aggravated assault in Pulaski County Circuit Court. Those charges were filed after police said a shell casing found at the scene of the Power Ultra Lounge shooting matched the Springfield XD .40-caliber pistol found in the Mercedes.
Since then, police have also arrested Tyler Clay Jackson, 19, who is accused of being the initial shooter in the club. Police said he injured at least three people while firing into the crowd. He is charged in Pulaski County Circuit Court with three counts of second-degree battery and nine counts of aggravated assault.
Givens said authorities have determined that on May 26 -- just 29 days before the Forrest City shooting -- Gwynn purchased the Draco that Hampton has been videotaped holding and pointing. Givens said Hampton admitted to agents with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives that he "upped the Draco" in Forrest City. Givens described the gun as having an AK-47 rifle barrel with a pistol grip and no shoulder stock.
The indictment alleges that between May 26 and July 2, Gwynn provided the machine-gun-style pistol to Hampton, despite knowing that Hampton was a convicted felon, and also possessed and transported the .40-caliber gun while working for Hampton.
Hampton has two aggravated robbery convictions from Tennessee and, according to the July testimony of Agent Warren Newman of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, served time in prison on those convictions until his release on Aug. 23, 2016.
Hampton's appearance in court Monday contrasted sharply with his appearance in late July before U.S. Magistrate Judge Jerome Kearney. At that hearing, at which Hampton unsuccessfully asked to be released until trial, he wore colorful street clothes and often shook his head vehemently in response to a federal agent's testimony. He wore a blue, red and yellow shirt with an unknown emblem and long red shorts that were pulled down, baggy-pants style, to reveal under-layers of white, turquoise and green.
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On Monday, Hampton was subdued and polite, standing next to defense attorney Nicole Lybrand of the federal public defender's office in a khaki shirt and pants from an area jail. He answered questions from the judge in a soft-spoken manner, saying, "Yes sir," and "No, sir."
After Lybrand told the judge, "We're not admitting to other incidents of possession beyond the Forrest City nightclub," Holmes asked Hampton only if he is familiar with the gun in question and had it in his hand that night in Forrest City. He answered "yes" to both questions.
Holmes accepted the guilty plea and ordered a pre-sentence investigation. Hampton is facing up to 10 years in prison and up to three years of supervised release, as well as a possible fine of up to $250,000.
However, Givens said Hampton's plea agreement calls for enhancements because the gun in question was capable of accepting a high-capacity magazine, and Hampton possessed it in connection with another felony offense. The plea agreement states that if the judge determines that the enhancement applies, Hampton will instead be facing 15 years to life in prison.
At the detention hearing in July, Newman testified about Memphis police reports mentioning Hampton that dated back to 2007. He said that among them were reports that Hampton was involved in home burglaries and in individual robberies in which a shotgun was used. The agent said Hampton was also accused in 2013 of hitting a woman in the head with a beer bottle; in 2014 with assaulting a woman and leaving red marks on her face and, also in 2014, of pushing a woman he had been dating and firing a shot into the air. In 2016, the agent testified, Hampton was accused of making a phone call from a jail cell to a woman, threatening to kill her and her family.
The agent said Hampton admitted in 2014 that he had been a member of the Vice Lords gang since he was a youth.
Little Rock police have said a feud between rival gangs led to the Power Ultra Lounge shooting.
Referring to Hampton, U.S. Attorney Cody Hiland said Monday in a news release, "Violence has followed this individual, and it is time for that to end. The message is clear -- if you are a felon in possession of a firearm, and especially if you use that firearm to commit other crimes, you will be arrested and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law."
Metro on 03/06/2018