State Legal professional Suzy Lopez not too long ago argued to maintain a Central Florida kidnapping and theft defendant behind bars for all times.
The State Legal professional appeared in entrance of the Florida Fee on Offender Evaluation (FCOR) in Tallahassee and efficiently argued in opposition to the conditional medical launch of defendant Jimm Underwood. Underwood pleaded responsible in 2003 to kidnapping his former boss at gunpoint within the storage of his Cheval house. Underwood appealed to FCOR asking to be launched from his three consecutive life sentences on account of a terminal medical sickness.
State Legal professional Suzy Lopez appeared in entrance of the Fee urging them to disclaim Underwood’s launch. She argued that Underwood’s chilly and calculated crime nonetheless impacts the victims. Underwood methodically deliberate the crime during which he robbed his former boss and his spouse at gunpoint earlier than ransacking their Cheval house. The defendant held the couple captive for over 5 hours earlier than placing his former boss within the trunk of his automobile and driving to a storage facility in Largo the place the sufferer was chained up, hooded, and coated in plastic. Underwood dedicated the crime as a result of he was dissatisfied along with his employment scenario earlier than quitting his job.
Underwood additionally pressured his former boss’ spouse to go to the financial institution to withdraw $100,000 underneath the specter of her husband’s loss of life. The sufferer was capable of courageously escape from the storage facility to name for assist. Underwood pleaded responsible to the crime in 2003 and was sentenced to 3 consecutive life phrases.
“This defendant put an harmless couple by way of hell, and it’s by the grace of God that they weren’t critically injured or killed,” stated State Legal professional Suzy Lopez. “Underwood wrote a chilling letter that mentioned plans to kill his former boss and himself. To launch him from jail would reignite the trauma he induced and depart the victims fearing for his or her lives once more. I’m grateful that the Fee agreed to disclaim the medical launch in order that the victims can proceed to heal from this devastating ordeal.”
United States Legal professional Normal Pam Bondi initially prosecuted this case when she was an Assistant State Legal professional in Hillsborough County. She known as Underwood a monster and helped to safe justice for the victims.
State Legal professional Lopez leads a staff of prosecutors {and professional} employees who’re accountable for all legal prosecutions in Florida’s thirteenth Judicial Circuit. The Workplace of the State Legal professional for the Thirteenth Judicial Circuit is accountable for prosecuting all legal violations of state regulation that happen all through the Circuit, which encompasses all of Hillsborough County, together with the integrated cities of Tampa, Temple Terrace, and Plant Metropolis.
