Shreveport Man Sentenced for Failing to Appear

A Shreveport man faces a double sentence because he skipped out on an earlier sentencing.  

40-year-old Leo Cortez Vinson will be spending the next five years in federal prison plus a year of supervised release.  He also has to pay almost $7-thousand in restitution.

Vinson pled guilty in September of 2011 to filing fraudulent tax returns and was allowed to remain free on bond. When he failed to appear for sentencing in November of that year, a warrant was issued. He was arrested last October in South Dakota and sentenced a month later in Shreveport Federal Court to 36 months plus supervised release and restitution on the tax fraud charge. Now he's been sentenced to 24 months plus supervised release for failing to appear at his earlier sentencing.

The failure to appear and tax fraud sentences are to run consecutively for a total of 60 months.  The supervised release terms will run concurrently.