Ricky Hampton of Memphis, a rap artist known as Finese2Tymes who was performing when a shooting broke out at Little Rock's Power Ultra Lounge early July 1, 2017, said Wednesday that he no longer wishes to withdraw his guilty plea to possessing a gun in Forrest City a week earlier.
Hampton, 26, told U.S. District Judge Leon Holmes that when he reviewed his sealed pre-sentence report on the federal gun charge, he misunderstood references to certain incidents and "kinda panicked," thinking he may have received "bad advice" from his attorney when he pleaded guilty. He said that's why he asked last month to withdraw the plea and have a new attorney appointed. But when he saw a video earlier Wednesday that helped him understand, Hampton said, his concerns evaporated and he remains satisfied with his attorney, Nicole Lybrand of the federal public defender's office.
Holmes then prepared to proceed with Hampton's sentencing on a charge of being a felon in possession of a firearm, but Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephanie Mazzanti asked to delay the sentencing. She said she had just found out a day earlier that Hampton wants to present testimony at the hearing from an expert witness, and she wants time to look into the witness' background.
Lybrand told the judge she wouldn't object to the postponement because two other issues had surfaced regarding a statement Hampton gave to federal agents upon his arrest, and she wanted time to look into that.
Holmes said he had really wanted to hold the sentencing hearing Wednesday, but that it was important to allow each side to conduct "due diligence." He reset the sentencing for 9:30 a.m. Dec. 6.
Hampton remains in federal custody and pleaded guilty to the federal gun charge on March 5, ahead of a scheduled March 19 jury trial on the same charge. It alleged that he carried a machine-gun-style pistol known as a "Draco" outside Club Envy in Forrest City early June 25, 2017, where he had just finished performing.
In connection with the same incident, Hampton was charged Sept. 7, 2017, in St. Francis County Circuit Court with first-degree battery, aggravated assault, terroristic threatening and misdemeanor criminal mischief. Those charges are still pending, as is a charge of possession of a firearm by certain persons that was filed against him June 18 in Pulaski County Circuit Court, in connection with the Power Ultra Lounge shootout in Little Rock.
In the Forrest City incident, a woman's back windshield was shot out, and she was grazed by a bullet in the neck, as she tried to move her vehicle out of the way of his entourage outside the club. She has said Hampton was yelling at her to get out of the way and pointing the gun at her, and that she believes he fired the shot. Hampton, however, has denied pulling the trigger. Cellphone videos taken by bystanders showed him holding the gun.
In the Little Rock shooting, police have said that while Hampton was performing onstage, 20 to 40 shots were fired that left 25 people with gunshot wounds. At least three other people were injured while fleeing from the second-story club, now closed, at 220 W. Sixth St. downtown. No one was killed.
Kentrell Gwynn of Memphis, a bodyguard for Hampton, is facing 10 counts of aggravated assault in Pulaski County Circuit Court in the Little Rock shooting. He was charged on July 18, 2017, after authorities said they had matched a shell casing found at the club to a Springfield XD .40-caliber pistol that Gwynn was wearing in a thigh holster when arrested early July 2, 2017, outside a club in Birmingham, Ala., with Hampton, who was scheduled to perform there.
Gwynn pleaded guilty Sept. 5 to a federal charge of knowingly transferring a firearm to a felon, admitting that he let Hampton borrow the Draco -- also known as a Century Arms model RAS47, 7.26 x 39-caliber pistol -- that Hampton admitted holding in Forrest City. In exchange for Gwynn's plea to that charge, prosecutors dropped a second federal charge he faced of transporting another gun while working for a felon (Hampton).
Little Rock police have said the shooting inside the Power Ultra Lounge was the result of a gang dispute. Also arrested on state charges in connection with that shooting, which police said started at 2:27 a.m., is Tyler Clay Jackson, who is facing 10 counts of aggravated assault and three counts of second-degree battery. Jackson is accused of firing the first shot inside the club.
Jackson and three other men -- Machita Mitchell Jr., Keterrioun Chandler and Kenwan Sherrod -- are also facing capital murder and aggravated-robbery charges in Pulaski County Circuit Court in the July 24, 2017, slaying of Cyncere Alexander, 14, in Little Rock.
Information for this article was contributed by John Lynch of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
Metro on 11/15/2018