Rapper’s U.S. trial pushed back to ’18

Bodyguard also charged in gun case

federal jury trial scheduled Monday for Memphis rapper Ricky Hampton and his bodyguard, Kentrell Dominique Gwynn, also of Memphis, was rescheduled Friday for March 19.

The men were arrested July 2 in Birmingham, Ala., the night after Hampton performed at the now-defunct Power Ultra Lounge at 220 W. Sixth St. in downtown Little Rock. A shootout at the club during the show left 25 people injured by gunfire and three others injured as they tried to flee the second-story venue.

Both men are facing federal gun charges.

Hampton, 25, who uses the stage name Finese2Tymes, was indicted on a charge of being a felon in possession of a firearm in relation to a shooting outside a Forrest City nightclub a week earlier. Hampton is accused of shooting out the back windshield of a woman’s car and grazing her with a bullet after she wouldn’t move her car fast enough for his liking. He is also facing state charges of aggravated assault in that shooting.

Gwynn is facing federal charges of providing Hampton, a convicted felon, with a machine-gun-style pistol, and providing armed security for a felon, both between May and July 2.

In addition, police have said shell casings found after the shooting in Little Rock were matched to a gun Gwynn was carrying. So Gwynn is also charged in state court with 10 counts of aggravated assault, one for each shot he’s accused of firing in the club. Police have said several people opened fire in what was believed to be a dispute between rival gangs.

Both Hampton and Gwynn have been ordered to remain in federal custody until their joint trial in the Little Rock courtroom of U.S. District Judge Leon Holmes.