Bone Thug Pleads No Contest

ByABC News
September 18, 2000, 2:28 PM

September 14 -- Rapper Stanley Howse a k a Flesh-N-Bone of Bone Thugs-N-Harmony pleaded no contest Wednesday to illegal possession of a sawed-off shotgun. Authorities seized the firearm during an incident on Jan. 3, when Howse dropped in at a relative's house in South Los Angeles, packing heat.

Police responded to a call from a family member and spied the shotgun on the dashboard of a car parked in front of the home. An LAPD officer later testified that several people, fearing for their safety, had locked themselves in a bedroom when the police arrived at the scene. After a 90-minute standoff, Howse surrendered to authorities.

The 27-year-old rap star is expected to receive a two-year term when Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Marsha N. Revel sentences him on Oct. 24, Deputy District Attorney Eric Levine told reporters Wednesday.

Additional charges against Howse stemming from the January incident, including resisting a police officer and making terrorist threats, will be dropped at sentencing, in compliance with a plea agreement.

Howse, whose group won a Grammy in 1997 for their single "The Crossroads," is still awaiting sentencing in a separate case stemming from a prior incident. On Dec. 26, Howse allegedly pulled an AK-47 assault rifle on Tarrance Vickers while Vickers and his brother, Fred Nelson, were visiting the rapper.

On June 15, the rapper was convicted of assault with a semiautomatic firearm and of being an ex-convict in possession of a firearm. He faces approximately 19 years in prison in that case.

Levine said the two-year sentence for the January offense most likely will be imposed concurrently with the term for the December incident.

Howse has had more than a little trouble with the law over the years. In February 1998, Howse pleaded guilty to assault with a deadly weapon after attacking a neighbor who complained about shots being fired in July 1997.

As part of his three-year probation which Howse was still serving during both the December and January incidents the performer was sentenced to counseling, anger-management classes, and community service.