Good News-Bad News Ruling for Flesh-N-Bone

Tue., Oct. 24, 2000 1:00 PM PDT by Marcus Errico

Flesh-N-Bone's latest legal tussle has ended, with a good news-bad news decision for the beleagured rap star.

First, the good news. The Grammy-winning Bone Thugs-N-Harmony cofounder, otherwise known as Stanley Howse, won't have to serve any additional time behind bars for illegal gun possession and resisting arrest.

The bad news? The two-year sentence Howse, 27, received on those charges, which stem from a January incident at a relative's house in South Los Angeles, will be served concurrently with the 11-year stint the hip-hopster got for an earlier, unrelated gun-and-assault conviction.

The Los Angeles District Attorney's Office said Howse, who was originally due in court Tuesday for sentencing, had copped a plea last month to the charges of being a felon in possession of a firearm and resisting an officer.

Following his no-contest plea, a Los Angeles Superior Court judge sentenced Howse on October 13 to the prison time.

The latest rap dates back to January 3, when Howse turned up at a relative's home packing a loaded sawed-off shotgun. When police arrived, he was barricaded in the house. Howse evenutally surrendered after a tense, 90-minute standoff.

Howse has racked up some serious courtroom hours over the past three years. He was busted twice in 1997--first, for illegal fireworks and gunplay during a raucous Fourth of July celebration, and then, days later, for allegedly threatening to rough up a witness in that case. Howse wound up pleading guilty to assault charges and getting sentenced to three years' probation, community service and anger-management counseling.

Apparently, the anger management didn't stick, because last December, he was at it again, pulling an AK-47 assault rifle out of a baby crib and pointing it at a friend visiting his Woodland Hills apartment.

That little incident is what led to his pending 11-year stay in a California penitentiary, which he'll begin serving later this year.

"I am very sorry for my wrongdoings and accept responsibility for these crimes," Howse said in a statement to the court. "I understand that the nature of these crimes makes me appear to be a violent person but I am not a violent person."

All this prison time seems to put an end to Flesh-N-Bone's tenure with Bone Thugs. The group, which created a unique, quick-rhyming style, first sprouted onto the hip-hop scene as prot?g?s of late rapper Eazy-E. Bone Thugs won a Grammy in 1997 for best rap performance by a duo or group for their single, "Tha Crossroads," and in February, the rappers released their latest album, BTNHResurrection, which went platinum.

Not so coincidentally, Howse's recent solo release, The Fifth Dog Lets Loose, which debuted September 26 (just four days after his sentencing), features photos of the rapper posing from behind bars.