Wesley Snipes Prison Sentence Begins

Blade’s in The Big House….

Snipes was found guilty in April 2008 on three misdemeanor counts of failing to file federal income tax returns. He faced up to 16 years.

The star surrendered shortly before noon EST to begin serving his 36-month sentence. He will be imprisoned at the Federal Correctional Institution McKean in Bradford, Pennsylvania.

He appealed several times, including a request for a new trial. Each measure was denied. Late Wednesday, lawyers for the To Wong Foo star — sentenced to three years for tax evasion — filed an emergency motion for a new trial, claiming some jurors in the original hearing were convinced of the 48-year-old’s guilt before the proceedings even began. A federal judge in Florida balked at the request, arguing that the issues raised by Snipes’ motion had already been ruled on last month. Snipes had recently appealed to report to prison on Jan. 6, in hopes of spending holiday season with his wife and three young children, but that request was denied by another Florida judge who wrote that the actor had plenty of time to prepare “for the impact that his incarceration will have upon members of his family.”

Snipes maintains his innocence. He appeared on CNN’s Larry King Live on Tuesday night with one final appeal for his freedom. Snipes said he was not nervous about reporting to prison — just upset that the legal system failed him. He blamed his sentence on his own bad decision to rely on the advice of tax professionals.