Wesley Snipes to serve 3-year jail term

LONDON - ‘Blade’ star Wesley Snipes has been ordered to serve a three-year jail sentence for a felony tax conviction.

The decision was handed over after a Florida judge rejected his bid for a new trial.

Revoking bail for the 48-year-old star, the judge ordered him to report to prison as directed by the US Marshal’s Service or Bureau of Prisons.

“The Defendant Snipes had a fair trial … The time has come for the judgment to be enforced,” the Telegraph quoted US District Judge Terrell Hodges as saying in his ruling.

However, ambiguity still remains over when or where Snipes would begin serving his sentence.

Snipes’ lawyer, Daniel Meachum, said the ruling was ‘just shocking’.

“Wesley is very disappointed but staying strong and positive,” he told the Orlando Sentinel.

Snipes had already lost his appeal of the prison sentence stemming from his 2008 conviction in Hodges’ Ocala, Florida, court on three misdemeanor tax charges for failing to file income tax returns for 1999 through 2001.

At his sentencing in 2008, prosecutors said Snipes, a resident of Windermere, Florida, had earned more than 38 million dollars since 1999 but had filed no tax returns or paid any taxes. (ANI)