A former Las Cruces resident who pleaded no contest to felony fraud and tax evasion charges has been sentenced to 15 years in prison.

State district judge Doug Driggers sentenced Richard Gene Guy, 56, on Monday, who had entered his pleas June 20.

Guy was indicted in March 2005 on 17 fraud and state tax evasion counts relating to a construction company he ran in Dona Ana County in 2002 and 2003.

The U.S. Marshals service said he left the United States in 2005 to work in Iraq.

Guy could not be located until November 2006, when he surfaced in Kuwait. That government expelled him for immigration violations in July 2007, and deputy U.S. Marshals from New Mexico escorted him back.

Guy has been held in the Dona Ana County Detention Center since August 2007.