CANTON, Miss.–Louis Smith was once a respected Canton alderman and businessman. You might’ve even bought a car from bhim. Now he’ll spend five and a half years in the federal lock-up for taking a stack of $100 bills as a bribe. Smith was sentenced Monday.
Smith had asked for a delay in sentencing earlier, saying he wanted a new trial. Smith’s financial report then came into play, and a revelation he had not filed federal income tax returns for several years.
In court Monday, Smith pleaded with the judge for leniency, reports News Mississippi affiliate WMGO.
He could have gotten up to ten years.
It was video and audio recordings of Smith taking stacks of $100 bills that got him convicted. The exchanges were made in Saab Park, just north of the Canton square.
Smith was arrested last year, just as he was learning that he had lost re-election.
His arrest came when several instances of voter fraud and intimidation unrelated to his arrest were going down, and many assumed that the cuffs being put on Smith, who was at city hall, had something to do with that.
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