State briefs

LOS ANGELES - Rapper Master P and his brother were charged Monday with carrying unregistered loaded guns.

The 37-year-old rapper, whose real name is Percy Robert Miller, was arrested along with his brother on Jan. 27 after campus police stopped their leased car near the University of California, Los Angeles because it didn't have license plates, according to the arrest report.

An officer spotted a gun near the driver's seat and another was found under the front passenger seat, where Miller was sitting, the report said.

The car was being driven by Miller's brother, Vyshonn King Miller, a 29-year-old singer who uses the name "Silkk the Shocker," authorities said.

Both men were free on $35,000 bail each pending arraignments Wednesday on one felony count each.

A third brother, Corey Miller, a rapper who used the name C-Murder, is awaiting sentencing for murder. He was convicted of second-degree murder in 2003 for shooting a 16-year-old man to death at a nightclub in a New Orleans suburb.

Court reject plea for man who ate roommate's lung

LOS ANGELES - A state appeals court on Monday upheld the conviction of an aspiring rapper who killed his roommate and ate part of her lung.

The 2nd District Court of Appeal refused to overturn Antron Singleton's 2003 conviction for murder and aggravated mayhem.

Singleton, who used the stage name Big Lurch, was convicted in Compton Superior Court of killing Tynisha Ysais in April 2002. He is serving a life sentence without possibility of parole.

The mother of two was found stabbed to death in the southeast Los Angeles apartment she shared with Singleton. Testimony showed that the 21-year-old woman's chest had been cut open and her right lung, which had been removed, appeared chewed and torn.

Singleton was arrested after he was spotted walking naked on a street with his mouth, chest and abdomen covered in blood.

Singleton pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. His lawyer argued he was in a psychotic state induced by the drug PCP.

Skeleton found

in chimney

LOS ANGELES - A human skeleton found in the chimney of an abandoned South Los Angeles building last week was probably there for two years, authorities said Monday.

The remains belonged to a young black male between the ages of 13 and 19 and there were no signs of trauma to the body, county coroner's spokesman Craig Harvey said.

A forensic anthropologist examined the skeleton on Monday and determined the time of death to be about two years ago.

Children discovered the remains Friday while looking for a ball on the roof of a building near Main and 89th streets. A youngster peering into the chimney saw what appeared to be a skull.

"(The deceased) possibly tried to gain entry into the building by the chimney and did not know how chimneys are constructed," Harvey said. "That's why his remains were found high up in the chimney, on a ledge above the flue."

Authorities will now comb through reports of missing persons of the last two years to see whether they can identify the remains.

Man gets prison for planning sex with kids

SANTA ANA - An 87-year-old man who was convicted of attempting to travel to the Philippines to molest young girls was sentenced Monday to 20 years in prison under a federal law aimed at fighting so-called sex tourism.

John W. Seljan, a former business owner from Garden Grove, was the first person to be convicted at trial of violating the Protect Act, which made it easier for U.S. authorities to prosecute people for overseas sex crimes, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. At least two other men pleaded guilty before trial in unrelated cases.