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…