LOS ANGELES (AP) - Actor Tom Sizemore was sentenced Thursday to 17 months in jail and four months in a drug-treatment facility for repeatedly failing drug tests while on probation.
Later in the day, he was sentenced in a separate felony methamphetamine case to additional inpatient drug treatment. Sizemore, 43, was allowed to remain free while he appeals a domestic-violence conviction.
Sizemore failed seven drug tests, admitted methamphetamine use twice and failed to show up for further testing while on probation for a 2003 domestic-violence conviction involving his ex-girlfriend, former Hollywood madam Heidi Fleiss, a prosecutor said.
Sizemore sobbed, gestured and begged for another chance as he delivered a rambling speech before being handed the first sentence Thursday by Superior Court Judge Antonio Barreto.
He pleaded with the judge for leniency, saying he had broken his parents' hearts and felt like a 12-year-old child. Sizemore also said he is "engaged in a struggle right now to regain the better part of who I am...I never thought I had this disease."
"I assure your honoor that I'm not acting now. I'm not acting, I'm begging, I'm beseeching you."
"I can't imagine my future without performing."
Outside court, he gave a high five and directed an obscene gesture at the press.
Sizemore, best known for his roles in Saving Private Ryan (1998) and Black Hawk Down (2001), was back in court later Thursday for sentencing on the felony conviction for methamphetamine possession.
Judge Paula Adele Mabrey ruled he was eligible for a drug-treatment program and ordered him to submit proof he was enrolled by April 14.
