Wesley Snipes is accused of failing to pay income taxes on $38 million

Lawyers for Wesley Snipes rested their defense of the Orlando-born actor Monday without calling anyone from their star-studded list of witnesses -- not even Snipes, who smiled and waved to fans as he strode from the federal courthouse with his confident legal team.
"We could have put on a big show, but we don't do that," said defense co-counsel Robert Bernhoft, a tax-case specialist from Milwaukee. "We're not going to waste the jury's time."
Snipes, who portrayed a half-vampire hero in the Blade trilogy and played tough guys in Passenger 57, U.S. Marshals and other movies, faces up to 16 years in prison if convicted.
Closing arguments to the all-white jury are set to begin at 9:30 a.m. today. Jurors could begin deliberations Wednesday.
The abrupt and unexpected end of testimony disappointed some spectators who had hoped to catch a glimpse of a star at the federal courthouse in Ocala.
"Not even Rambo," groused Jake Hawkins, 27, referring to the character portrayed by Stallone in a series of action films.
"I can't believe I took off work for this," the truck mechanic said as he trudged to his pickup, a disposable camera in his hand.
Berkley Bell, 47, of Orlando said he was satisfied that Snipes recognized him from their school days at Jones High in Orlando.
"He said, 'Man, it's been a long time,' " said Bell and his wife, Glorice, recounting their encounter with Snipes on Monday.
They had come to offer support to the actor and snapped photos not only with Snipes but also with M. Scotland Morris, one of the assistant U.S. attorneys prosecuting the star's case.
Snipes, 45, is accused of failing to pay income taxes on $38 million he earned from films and investments from 1999 to 2004.
Prosecutors built their case against the actor and two other Florida men -- Douglas Rosile, 59, of Venice and Eddie Ray Kahn, 64, of Mount Dora -- over seven days of testimony from 23 witnesses.
A lawyer for Rosile also declined to present witnesses in defense of his client, an accountant who prepared tax returns that sought $11 million in refunds for Snipes.
Kahn, who declared at the beginning of the trial that he was not "participating," has spent most of the proceedings in his cell at the Marion County Jail.
The founder of Guiding Light of God Ministries, a tax-protest group based in Mount Dora, Kahn was previously accused by the Internal Revenue Service of promoting and selling abusive tax schemes at seminars and through the Internet.
After court recessed, trial watchers questioned the wisdom of offering no defense witnesses.
"I would have liked to hear why Mr. Snipes did the things he did, and I think the jury probably did, too," said J.J. MacNab, a Maryland insurance analyst who is documenting the trial for a book on tax protesters.
The government's case relied heavily on angry correspondence from the actor to the IRS.
Much of it ended up in a "funny box," where IRS employees set aside questionable returns filled with tax-protester rhetoric and frivolous arguments, according to agents' testimony.
Defense lawyers labeled Snipes' letters to the U.S. Treasury officials, IRS investigators and federal prosecutors as evidence of a good-faith search for the truth by the actor, who was struggling with conflicting tax advice from consultants who were exploiting him.
But IRS employees testified that Snipes' documents -- one of which warned of "significant personal liability" for agents who pursued him -- were identical to rambling correspondence sent by tax protesters sanctioned for promoting illegal schemes.