Jury picks begin in trial of rapper facing charges
Jury selection begins this morning in the drug conspiracy trial of the Arkansas rap music recording artist known as Bankroll Freddie who faces multiple federal counts alleging drug trafficking and firearms violations.
Freddie Gladney III, the artist behind the album “From Trap to Rap,” is the only one of 35 defendants named in a federal indictment stemming from a large-scale drug-trafficking investigation to go to trial in the matter, with the rest of the defendants having entered guilty pleas or having been dismissed from the indictment.
The indictment stems from an FBI investigation into the Central Arkansas street gang known as “EBK” — Every Body Killas — believed to be responsible for large-scale drug trafficking in the state. Gladney was arrested Nov. 9, 2022, just more than a week after a federal grand jury in Little Rock returned a 61-count indictment naming Gladney, his father, two of his brothers and 30 others believed to be associated with EBK with a variety of drug trafficking and weapons charges.
Gladney’s father, Freddie Gladney Jr., the lead defendant on the indictment, pleaded guilty March 14 to conspiracy to distribute marijuana and cocaine and faces up to 40 years in prison when he returns for sentencing. Two of Gladney’s brothers, Jamal Daniels and Brandon Kingsley Robinson, also were named as co-conspirators in the indictment. Robinson, 35, of Marianna, pleaded guilty Jan. 25 to possession of a firearm by a felon and faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison. Daniels, 29, of Myrtle Beach, S.C., pleaded guilty last Tuesday to conspiracy to distribute cocaine and faces a possible maxi
mum sentence of 20 years in prison.
Another 24 people, along with three who were also named in the EBK indictment, were charged in a tandem indictment that grew out of a parallel investigation into the activities of a rival street gang — Lodi Murder Mobb — that is scheduled for trial later this year.
Federal authorities credited work done by Pine Bluff Detective Kevin Collins — an FBI task force officer who was killed Oct. 5, 2020, while serving an arrest warrant on an EBK gang member — and other task force officers in Pine Bluff with gathering information that enabled investigators to get numerous wiretaps authorized in 2022 that led to the indictments.
Gladney, represented by Bobby Digby II and Mackenzie Tyler Ivy of Benton, faces 10 criminal counts, including one count of conspiracy to distribute narcotics, two counts of possession of marijuana with intent to distribute, three counts of making false statements to obtain a firearm, two counts of possession of firearms in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime, one count of possession of machine guns and one count of use of a communications facility in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime.
The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Julie Peters, Amanda Fields and Stephen Reese Lancaster and is being presided over by U.S. District Judge James M. Moody Jr. The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Little Rock said the trial could take up to eight days to complete.
If convicted on all counts, Gladney could face a maximum of 40 years in prison.
At the time of his arrest, Gladney was under indictment in federal court on drug and gun charges and was on pre-trial release after an April 14, 2022, arrest by state police in Crittenden County. He has been held in federal custody since his Nov. 10, 2022, arrest after a federal magistrate judge denied him bond, saying the release plan Gladney proposed was identical to the release plan he was under at the time of his arrest, which the judge said Gladney appeared to have violated at the outset.
Gladney’s manager Jimmy Jackson, owner of CTG Studios in Little Rock, pleaded to no avail for the rapper’s release at the December 2022 bond hearing, arguing Gladney had just signed a contract with Live Nation for a 45-day tour that would be in jeopardy if Gladney remained in jail. Jackson said he began managing Gladney in 2018 and the following year signed him to the Quality Control recording label, which he said raised Gladney’s profile and quadrupled his pershow earnings from $3,500 to $15,000 per show.
If convicted on the conspiracy and firearms counts, Gladney faces a five-year mandatory minimum sentence on the conspiracy count, a mandatory consecutive five-year sentence for possession of firearms in furtherance of a drug-trafficking crime, and a mandatory consecutive 30-year sentence for machine gun possession stemming from an arrest in April 2022, for a total of 40 years in prison.