Wesley Snipes will spend 3 years in jail...

...for tax evasion.

Wesley Snipes is prison-bound.

The Blade star, 45, was sentenced Thursday to three years behind bars as his punishment for tax evasion, U.S. District Judge William Terrell Hodges announced in an Ocala, Fla., courtroom.

During the sentencing the actor sat stone-faced – and some in the courtroom gasped when the sentence was read. "I'm very sorry for my mistakes and errors. I apologize to my family, the court and the community," Snipes said in court. "I've asked the court to show me mercy and the opportunity to make things right."

In February, a federal jury convicted Snipes of three counts of failing to file a tax return (from 1999 through 2001). Thursday he received 12 months for each count.

Earlier this year, he was acquitted on the more serious charges of conspiracy to defraud the government and filing a false claim for a $7 million refund – both felonies – as well as three similar counts of failure to file returns for the years 2002, 2003 and 2004.

What an idiot.