ACTOR WESLEY SNIPES TO SERVE 3 YEARS IN JAIL FOR TAX EVASION

ORLANDO, Fla. — A federal judge ordered actor

Wesley Snipes to surrender to authorities Friday so

he can begin serving a three-year prison sentence

for tax-related crimes.

U.S. District Court Judge William Terrell Hodges in

Ocala, Fla., rejected a request from the actor's

attorneys to review Snipes' sentence and grant a new

trial. Snipes has been free on bond for more

than two years while appealing.

 

.."The defendant Snipes had a fair trial; he has had a

full, fair and thorough review of his conviction and

sentence. ... The time has come for the judgment to be

enforced," the judge wrote in his 16-page decision.

 

The 48-year-old star of the "Blade" trilogy and

Spike Lee's "Jungle Fever" was convicted in 2008 on

three misdemeanor counts of willful failure to file his

income tax returns. He was acquitted of two more

serious felony charges.

 

Messages left by The Associated Press for Snipes'

attorney and for prison officials were not

immediately returned Friday.

 

Snipes' attorneys had argued at a hearing earlier

this week that jurors should be interviewed about

whether they had perjured themselves by stating

during jury selection that they didn't have

preconceived opinions about the case.

Snipes attorney Daniel Meachum said he had

received e-mails from two former jurors who

claimed other jurors thought Snipes was guilty

even before the trial started.

 

Snipes' attorneys also claimed a new trial should

be granted because of the testimony of Kenneth Starr,

a former financial adviser to celebrities who admitted

cheating wealthy and elderly clients out of tens of

millions of dollars during a plea hearing last

September in New York.

Snipes' attorneys wanted to know if

Internal Revenue Service agents working on the

Snipes case also knew that Starr was under investigation.

 

The judge said that questioning jurors about their decision

would compromise the privacy of jury deliberations. He also

said that Starr was not being investigated at the time of

Snipes' trial and that any inquiries would amount to

 "a fishing expedition."