CROWN POINT | Prospective Lake County jurors will get a bold-faced warning when they respond to jury summons next Monday.

Former Lake Criminal Court juror Michael Leibengood was sentenced Tuesday to create a 24-inch-by-24-inch sign that reads, "I failed to appear for jury duty" in large lettering. As part of his sentence, he is required to walk back and forth with it from 7:30 to 9 a.m. Monday in front of the county court building in Crown Point.

The 20-year-old Cedar Lake resident also was sentenced to three hours in Lake County Jail.

Lake Criminal Court Judge Thomas Stefaniak issued the unorthodox sentence Tuesday during a criminal contempt hearing to discuss Leibengood's conduct during the spring murder trial of Antonio Rose.

Leibengood did not show up for the second day of Rose's trial and had to be replaced by an alternate juror. That jury later convicted Rose of murder in the perpetration of a robbery.

Leibengood told Stefaniak he had a flat tire the morning of trial.

Stefaniak said Leibengood "very likely produced a fake excuse." The wayward juror said he slept at a house in Crown Point, but the flat occurred in Schererville.

"Do you get the feeling I don't believe you?" Stefaniak asked Leibengood during Tuesday's hearing. "Because I don't."

Stefaniak said Leibengood also lied on his juror questionnaire when he said he wasn't charged or convicted of a crime. He faces misdemeanor charges of criminal mischief and public intoxication in Schererville Town Court, court records show.

"I thought it meant a felony," Leibengood said.

After sentencing, Stefaniak recalled the warrant he issued late last week for Leibengood's arrest after he failed to appear for the scheduled court hearing.

Bailiffs took Leibengood into custody, and he served his three-hour jail sentenced before lunch.