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Grammy-winning rapper Lil Wayne pleaded guilty to attempted weapon possession Thursday, and expects to receive a one-year jail sentence.

He previously had pleaded not guilty to illegal gun-possession charges that carried at least 31/2 years in prison upon conviction.

Police said a gun was found on his tour bus in Manhattan in 2007.

The rapper, born Dwayne Carter, won last year’s best rap solo performance Grammy for A Milli . His albums include Tha Carter , Tha Carter II and Tha Carter III .

His trial had been due to start Jan. 20.

The judge had been holding a hearing on a debated DNA profiling technique used to tie the rapper to the gun.

Lil Wayne, 27, also is scheduled for trial in Arizona on felony drug-possession and weapons charges. He has pleaded not guilty in that case, which arose from an arrest at a U.S. Border Patrol checkpoint in January, 2008.

Manhattan prosecutors said small amounts of DNA found on the loaded weapon connected it to the platinum-selling artist. Defence lawyer Stacey Richman said the gun wasn’t Lil Wayne’s, and the testing technique was too problematic to prove otherwise.

Police pulled over Lil Wayne’s tour bus in Columbus Circle on July 22, 2007. They said they had seen and smelled marijuana smoke wafting out the door before the bus left a concert venue minutes earlier.

Police said that as an officer approached, the rapper tossed away a Louis Vuitton bag containing a gun.

The defense disputed officers’ basis for searching the bus and noted that more than a dozen other people were aboard.

NEW YORK — Lil Wayne has a date in a Manhattan courtroom, but DNA science will take center stage.

A hearing on a DNA profiling technique used in the rapper’s 2007 gun-possession case was due to start Wednesday. It concerns a process used for identifying people from tiny amounts of DNA — including some that prosecutors say ties the Grammy Award-winner to a gun found on his tour bus after a concert.

The 27-year-old has pleaded not guilty. He faces at least 3 1/2 years in prison if convicted.

The hearing aims to establish whether what’s known as low copy number DNA profiling has general scientific acceptance.

Lil Wayne, born Dwayne Carter, won last year’s best rap solo performance Grammy for “A Milli.” His albums include “Tha Carter,” “Tha Carter II” and “Tha Carter III.”