Image: Rapper Lil Wayne performs during the 2015 iHeartRadio Music Festival at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada September 18, 2015. REUTERS/Steve Marcus
By David Beasley
ATLANTA (Reuters) – An Atlanta man was sentenced on Friday to 10 years in prison for shooting at Grammy-winning rap music star Lil Wayne’s tour buses last April, Georgia prosecutors said.
Jimmy Carlton Winfrey, 25, a member of the Bloods street gang, was seeking to elevate his status in the group by shooting a high-profile, rival rap artist, according to the Cobb County District Attorney’s office.
Winfrey pleaded guilty to six gang-related charges. After his release from prison, he must also serve 10 years probation, prosecutors said.
On April 26, Winfrey went to an Atlanta nightclub to confront the rapper, whose real name is Dwayne Carter, prosecutors said.
“Mr. Winfrey made a verbal threat to Mr. Carter and then left in his white Camaro,” the district attorney’s office said in a statement. “Mr. Carter’s entourage later left the venue in two tour buses and Atlanta Police escorting the group noted a white Camaro nearby.”
The buses travelled onto a nearby interstate and when a police escort ended “a white Camaro pulled forward and shots were fired at the driver’s side of both buses,” prosecutors said.
No one was injured, according to authorities, who used cell-phone data to track Winfrey along the same route as the buses up to the time the shots were fired.
A representative for Wayne could not be reached for comment.
In 2008, the artist won Grammy awards for best rap album, best rap song, and best rap solo performance and was part of the award-winning best rap group performance. He went to prison in 2010 on a weapons charge in New York.
(Editing by Letitia Stein)
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