
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, December 2, 1994                   TAG: 9412020080
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
DATELINE: NEW YORK                                 LENGTH: Short

RAP STAR FOUND GUILTY OF SEXUAL ABUSE

Rap star Tupac Shakur was found guilty Thursday night of sexually abusing a young woman he had invited to his hotel room.

But a state Supreme Court jury of nine women and three men in Manhattan cleared him of the more serious charge of sodomy, and also of weapons charges.

Shakur, 23, who was shot five times during a robbery Wednesday, was not in the courtroom when the verdict was read. Sources told the New York Daily News that he had left the court after a surprise appearance Thursday morning and checked into Metropolitan Hospital - under the alias Bob Day.

A co-defendant, Charles Fuller, 24, received the same verdict as Shakur.

Shakur faced three counts of sex abuse and was found guilty of all three. On each count, he faces 21/3 to seven years in prison. Since the three counts stem from one criminal act, the sentence would almost certainly run concurrently.

A conviction for sodomy would have meant an 81/3- to 25-year term.

Shakur's lawyer, Michael Warren, immediately said he would appeal the verdict.

by CNB