Man pleads guilty to filing false tax return

ASHEVILLE – A man whose name came up repeatedly in an innocence hearing earlier this year has pleaded guilty to filing a false tax return.

49-year-old Matthew Bacoate wasn’t immediately sentenced when he pleaded guilty earlier this week. He faces a maximum of three years of prison.

Bacoate is a former drug addict who started a nonprofit rehabilitation program called Life on Life’s Terms in 1994. The North Carolina secretary of state suspended the nonprofit’s incorporation papers the year after it started for failing to file a tax return or pay taxes.

Bacoate’s name surfaced during an innocence investigation of the 2000 murder of Walter Bowman. Two men convicted in Bowman’s death were released Thursday after a three-judge panel declared them innocent.