Jurors in Rapper’s Trial Hear Conflicting Testimony

Did rap artist Stanley “Flesh-N-Bone” Howse point a loaded AK-47 at someone last December in a dispute over a woman?

The Grammy Award-winning rapper faces a possible 19-year prison sentence, depending on the answer.

When jurors begin their deliberations in Van Nuys Superior Court, which they are expected to do today, they must mull two contradictory accounts of Howse’s actions, provided by two witnesses who happen to be brothers. Howse is charged with assault with a semiautomatic firearm.

On Monday, Tarrance Vickers denied having told police, as the prosecutor alleged, that Howse pulled an AK-47 out of a baby crib, loaded it with a magazine or pointed it at him. Vickers also said that no one argued over Howse’s girlfriend, and that he never saw Howse, whom he called a friend, with a gun.

But on Tuesday, Vickers’ brother, Fred Nelson, contradicted Vickers’ testimony, and in so doing corroborated just about everything alleged by police and prosecutors.

“The defendant asked my brother not to covet . . . not to make passes at his girlfriend,” said Nelson, recalling conversations he heard while in Howse’s girlfriend’s Woodland Hills apartment Dec. 26.

Shortly afterward, Nelson testified, Howse “went to a bassinet and pulled out . . . an AK-47.”

The rapper--whom Nelson said he met for the first time that day--then strapped the gun around his neck, pointed it at Vickers and told them to get out, Nelson testified.

Howse, 27, frowned and rubbed his chin as he listened to Nelson’s testimony.

The trial is the most recent of a string of court appearances for Howse, who has been convicted seven times since the mid-1990s of crimes ranging from assault to spousal abuse, according to court documents.

His most recent conviction was last year, when he pleaded no contest to charges of assault, possession of an explosive device and making a terrorist threat in a July 4, 1997, incident. A neighbor told police he heard gunshots at Howse’s rented Chatsworth home, and officers found a homemade explosive device and casings in his backyard, evidence that a weapon had been discharged. Days later, Howse allegedly threatened to kill the 64-year-old neighbor and his family.

In court Tuesday, Nelson testified that a large gun shown to him by Deputy Dist. Atty. Shellie Samuels appeared to be the weapon that Howse had pointed at his brother in December.

The AK-47 had a white terry cloth bathrobe belt tied to it, which Nelson said resembled the strap Howse used to hang the gun from his neck.

Vickers’ girlfriend, who lived at the apartment complex, had also called the police. Nelson said that after officers arrived, he heard his brother tell them what Howse was wearing and “that he had a gun.”

According to court documents, police found an AK-47, a .223-caliber rifle and a .38-caliber revolver in the apartment where Howse was staying.

Howse’s girlfriend, Jennifer Spencer, said the guns seized had been brought there by a bodyguard named Zeus.

When questioned by defense attorney Phyllis Brown-Scarlett, Spencer said she didn’t see her boyfriend point a gun at anyone.

Closing arguments are expected this morning, after which the jury will begin deliberating.