Try telling Flesh-N-Bone he got a break. The Bone Thugs-N-Harmony rapper (a.k.a. Stanley Howse) will not have to serve additional prison time for resisting arrest and illegal weapons possession. The two year sentence he received on Oct. 13 for those two charges, will run concurrently with the eleven-year sentence handed down to him for another set of weapons possession and assault charges on Sept. 22.

Howse's initial sentence came from charges that he pulled an assault rifle on a friend in December of 1999. In September, Van Nuys, Calif., Superior Court Judge Darlene Schempp gave Howse an eleven-year sentence, rather than the maximum penalty of nineteen years in prison, claiming that his youth was "one of the worst cases I've read in terms of childhood abuse."

The latest sentence stems from a Jan. 3 incident in which the rapper brought a loaded sawed-off shotgun to a family member's home initiating a standoff with police. Howse pleaded no contest to the charges resulting in the two-year sentence.

Howse's first solo outing, The Fifth Dog Lets Loose was released four days after his original sentence. There has still been no statement about his role in the Grammy-winning Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, who released the platinum BTNHResurrection earlier this year.

ANDREW DANSBY
(October 26, 2000)