Shakur Found Guilty of Sex Abuse Charge

One day after he was shot in a robbery, rapper Tupac Shakur was convicted Thursday of sexually abusing a woman he had invited to his hotel room and acquitted of sodomy and weapons charges.

Shakur, 23, who was shot five times Wednesday, was not in court when the verdict was read. He had appeared earlier Thursday in a wheelchair with a heavy white bandage on his head.

The jury, which reached its decision on the third day of deliberations, reached the same verdict for a co-defendant, Charles Fuller, 24.

Shakur’s lawyer, Michael Warren, said he was pleased that the jury “kept an open mind.”

Both men were convicted on three counts of first-degree sex abuse, which means they groped and touched the woman without her consent.

Judge Daniel Fitzgerald told the attorneys to return to court Monday, presumably to arrange a sentencing date. The conviction does not carry an automatic prison sentence, but the men could each get maximum seven-year terms.