State Attorney Suzy Lopez recently argued to keep a Central Florida kidnapping and robbery defendant behind bars for life.
The State Attorney appeared in front of the Florida Commission on Offender Review (FCOR) in Tallahassee and successfully argued against the conditional medical release of defendant Jimm Underwood. Underwood pleaded guilty in 2003 to kidnapping his former boss at gunpoint in the garage of his Cheval home. Underwood appealed to FCOR asking to be released from his three consecutive life sentences due to a terminal medical illness.
State Attorney Suzy Lopez appeared in front of the Commission urging them to deny Underwood’s release. She argued that Underwood’s cold and calculated crime still impacts the victims. Underwood methodically planned the crime in which he robbed his former boss and his wife at gunpoint before ransacking their Cheval home. The defendant held the couple captive for over five hours before putting his former boss in the trunk of his car and driving to a storage facility in Largo where the victim was chained up, hooded, and covered in plastic. Underwood committed the crime because he was dissatisfied with his employment situation before quitting his job.
Underwood also forced his former boss’ wife to go to the bank to withdraw $100,000 under the threat of her husband’s death. The victim was able to courageously escape from the storage facility to call for help. Underwood pleaded guilty to the crime in 2003 and was sentenced to three consecutive life terms.
“This defendant put an innocent couple through hell, and it is by the grace of God that they were not seriously injured or killed,” said State Attorney Suzy Lopez. “Underwood wrote a chilling letter that discussed plans to kill his former boss and himself. To release him from prison would reignite the trauma he caused and leave the victims fearing for their lives again. I am grateful that the Commission agreed to deny the medical release so that the victims can continue to heal from this devastating ordeal.”
United States Attorney General Pam Bondi originally prosecuted this case when she was an Assistant State Attorney in Hillsborough County. She called Underwood a monster and helped to secure justice for the victims.
State Attorney Lopez leads a team of prosecutors and professional staff who are responsible for all criminal prosecutions in Florida’s 13th Judicial Circuit. The Office of the State Attorney for the Thirteenth Judicial Circuit is responsible for prosecuting all criminal violations of state law that occur throughout the Circuit, which encompasses all of Hillsborough County, including the incorporated cities of Tampa, Temple Terrace, and Plant City.
