Snipes jury gets clarification on 'conspiracy'

OCALA -- A federal judge issued a one-page response this morning to a question from jurors deliberating in actor Wesley Snipes' tax evasion trial.

Defense attorneys objected to Senior U.S. District Judge William Terrell Hodges explaining the meaning of conspiracy after jurors sent a note Wednesday asking that he do so.

Robert Bernhoft, Snipes' lead defense attorney, asked the judge to tell jurors they must rely on the instructions they had already received.

"It seems to me the message I propose to send to them is no way a misstatement of the law and may help them with deliberations," Hodges said.

Count one of the October 2006 federal indictment against Snipes, 45, charges him and two co-defendents with conspiracy to defraud the Internal Revenue Service. The two men standing trial with Snipes are Eddie Ray Kahn, a Lake County resident, whom Snipes hired as a tax adviser, and Douglas Rosile, a Venice accountant who worked for Kahn and prepared one of Snipes' tax returns.

Federal prosecutors charged Snipes with filing false income tax returns for 1996 and 1997, requesting refunds totaling $11.4-million. The IRS also accused the celebrity of not filing any income tax returns from 1999 to 2004.

If convicted of the charges, Snipes faces a maximum of 16 years in federal prison.

Jurors spent their first full day deliberating on Wednesday without reaching a verdict. They sent a note to the judge around 4:30 p.m. with their question about a further explanation of the word conspiracy. Hodges sent them home early, giving him time to speak with attorneys today before he responded.

Jurors returned to the courthouse today at 9 a.m. to resume deliberations.

-Kevin Graham, Times staff writer