Bryant man, 21, pleads to 1 count
Faces 10 years, $250,000 fine
A Saline County man charged by federal authorities with machine gun possession in connection with his May 2022 arrest after the murder of a 7-year-old Pine Bluff girl near the Little Rock Zoo pleaded guilty Tuesday in federal court to one count of being a felon in possession of a firearm.
Cortney Tyronne McGee, 21, of Bryant was arrested May 28, 2022, along with his brother, 19-year-old Keaton Jamal McGee, and 20-yearold Kenjata Daniels after the three men fled from police later in the day in Bryant following the shooting death of Chloe Alexander, who was riding with her family near the Little Rock Zoo when their car was fired upon. Daniels was later charged with capital murder in connection with the shooting.
Last April, while on pre-trial release on federal weapons charges related to the May 2022 arrest, Cortney McGee was arrested by state police on weapons and drug charges and in July his pre-trial release was revoked and he was ordered remanded to federal custody until his case is resolved.
Court records indicated that on April 10, 2023, agents with the U.S. Secret Service and Arkansas State Police searching for a Little Rock man indicted on federal fraud charges arrested McGee on drug and gun charges after he and 20-year-old Ricardo Williams Jr. fled when agents tried to take Williams into custody. According to an Arkansas State Police report, agents had been tailing Williams for several hours with a warrant for his arrest when Williams pulled into the parking lot of a music studio at the corner of Daisy Bates Drive and State Street in Little Rock. The report said that as officers attempted to take Williams into custody, he and another man, later identified as McGee, took off running. McGee was apprehended a few blocks away, hiding in a patch of tall grass in an alley after he was unable to scale a privacy fence.
The following day, citing McGee’s arrest, the U.S. Probation Office filed the motion to revoke his bond.
Keaton McGee was sentenced in March 2023 to 30 years in prison for what prosecutors called the “cold and calculated” shooting death of Deante Deshawn Smith, 22, of Forrest City at an April 2021 carnival by the Outlets of Little Rock mall and Bass Pro Shops. The younger McGee was also one of five teenagers arrested in a February 2021 shootout in the Otter Creek neighborhood that wounded McGee’s cousin.
In court Tuesday, Assistant U.S. Attorney Lauren Eldridge outlined the plea agreement for U.S. District Judge Billy Roy Wilson, saying that on May 28, 2022, police searching for a Chevrolet Malibu believed to have been involved in a shooting that claimed the life of 7-year-old Chloe Alexander discovered the vehicle at a Bryant residence.
“While officers watched the residence,” Eldridge said, “they saw three males exit the house and get into the car. Officers followed the vehicle until the Little Rock Police Department was able to attempt to conduct a traffic stop.”
But, Eldridge continued, the driver fled from police, leading to a chase that ended a short time later at Stagecoach Road and Interstate 430 in southwest Little Rock.
“Eventually the vehicle crashed on the Stagecoach overpass above Interstate 430,” Eldridge continued. “The front seat passenger, identified as Cortney McGee, fled the scene but officers were able to take the driver and back passenger into custody.”
A search of the vehicle, Eldridge said, led to the discovery of a Glock .40 caliber pistol and a Glock 9mm pistol. The 9mm pistol, she said, was equipped with a conversion device to enable the weapon to fire as a machine gun.
“Both the driver and back seat passenger told officers the guns belonged to McGee,” Eldridge said. “Officers pursued the vehicle from the time the three got into the car until it crashed so they know McGee was in the front seat the entire time.”
Following Eldridge’s recitation of the plea facts, Christophe Tarver, senior litigator with the Federal Public Defenders Office in Little Rock, who is representing McGee, asked to clarify that McGee was only admitting to ownership of the Glock 9mm pistol equipped with the conversion device and that he denied any involvement in the shooting that claimed Chloe Alexander’s life.
McGee was charged in August 2022 in Pulaski County Circuit Court with possession of firearms by certain persons, criminal use of prohibited weapons, theft of firearms and fleeing on foot. The following month, he was federally indicted on charges of possession of a machine gun and being a felon in possession of firearms, at which time the state charges were dismissed. He faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine when he returns for sentencing in July.