High-profile Raleigh defense attorney sentenced

A Raleigh defense attorney who tried to hide bank deposits from the Internal Revenue Service will serve one day in prison and nine months in a halfway house.

Posted 10:15 a.m. Aug 3, 2010 — Updated 10:15 a.m. Aug 3, 2010

RALEIGH, N.C. — A Raleigh defense attorney who tried to hide bank deposits from the Internal Revenue Service will serve one day in prison and nine months in a halfway house.

Johnny Sherwood Gaskins, who was sentenced in federal court on Monday, will spend three years on probation.

Investigators said Gaskins structured deposits at several RBC Centura banks to avoid federal income reporting laws. A federal indictment said Gaskins made numerous deposits, each just shy of $10,000, totaling more than $350,000 over a two-year period.

Deposits of more than $10,000 must be accompanied by a currency transaction report, which alerts the government of high streams of income that do not have a clear source.

Gaskins gained fame defending high-profile clients like Adam Sapikowski, the Chapel Hill teenager convicted of fatally shooting his parents in 2006.

Those in the legal community also credit Gaskins' skills as an attorney for getting a life prison sentence for Kawame Mays, a man convicted of shooting and killing Raleigh police officer Paul Hale in 1997.

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