Howse Guilty, May Face 19 Years in Prison

After deliberating just half a day, a jury found superstar rap artist Stanley “Flesh-N-Bone” Howse guilty Thursday of weapons charges that could send him to prison for more than 19 years.

Howse, 27, a member of the Grammy Award-winning rap group Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, showed no emotion as jurors returned guilty verdicts for assault with an AK-47 semiautomatic firearm and possession of a firearm by a felon.

The other members of the group were saddened by the verdict and may tour this summer without him, but Howse won’t be replaced, said the group’s business lawyer, John K. Pierson.

“You have to understand, these guys are a family. They grew up together and it’s a family enterprise,” Pierson said of the other members, Krayzie, Wish, Bizzy and Howse’s brother Layzie.

After delivering their verdict, jurors said they didn’t believe the victim, who on Monday denied just about everything police said he told them at the time his girlfriend reported the Dec. 26 crime at a Woodland Hills apartment complex.

“His story changed from what he told police and what he told the detective to what he said on the stand,” said one juror, who declined to be named.

Instead, jurors believed the victim’s brother, whose testimony on Tuesday corroborated the allegations that Howse got into a dispute over his girlfriend, drew the weapon out of a baby crib, loaded and pointed it at the victim.

“He knew he wasn’t supposed to have a gun,” said another juror. “It’s pretty obvious, if there are guns and it’s in his place.”

The rapper’s girlfriend, Jennifer Spencer, inadvertently helped police when she testified by indicating Howse did have a gun that day.

“Jennifer’s testimony confirmed the prosecution’s story,” said one juror.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Shellie Samuels applauded the verdict. “Once you got through all of the red herrings . . . it was clear that he did it,” said Samuels, who also noted that “the defendant’s girlfriend actually sealed his fate.”

For Howse, who has been in and out of Los Angeles courts since his rap group moved here from Cleveland in 1993, this is his eighth violence-related conviction.

His previous convictions were for offenses ranging from spousal abuse to assault to other weapons offenses, according to court documents. He also has had several probation violations. After this case is over, he faces another trial over more weapons charges arising from a January incident in South Los Angeles, according to Sandi Gibbons, spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office.

“This man just keeps getting more violent. I can’t think of what he’d do the next time he gets out,” Samuels said.

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The group’s fourth and most recent album, “BTNHResurrection,” debuted at No. 2 three months ago on pop music charts and sold 280,000 copies during its first week in stores. Previous albums by the group debuted at No. 1.

Howse is scheduled to be sentenced July 14 by Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Darlene E. Schempp.

His lawyer, Phyllis Brown-Scarlett, said she plans to appeal. The guilty verdict and the possibility of a long prison sentence does not mean that the rapper’s music career is ending, she said.

According to those close to Howse, he has written lyrics before while in jail.

“He works around the clock on his lyrics,” said Pierson, his business lawyer. “He’s gonna continue to write.”