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State Lawyer Suzy Lopez just lately argued to maintain a Central Florida kidnapping and theft defendant behind bars for all times.
The State Lawyer 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 residence. Underwood appealed to FCOR asking to be launched from his three consecutive life sentences attributable to a terminal medical sickness.
State Lawyer 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 by which he robbed his former boss and his spouse at gunpoint earlier than ransacking their Cheval residence. 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 state of affairs 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 demise. The sufferer was in a position to 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 means of hell, and it’s by the grace of God that they weren’t significantly injured or killed,” stated State Lawyer 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 precipitated and go away 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 Lawyer Basic Pam Bondi initially prosecuted this case when she was an Assistant State Lawyer in Hillsborough County. She referred to as Underwood a monster and helped to safe justice for the victims.
State Lawyer Lopez leads a workforce of prosecutors {and professional} workers who’re answerable for all prison prosecutions in Florida’s thirteenth Judicial Circuit. The Workplace of the State Lawyer for the Thirteenth Judicial Circuit is answerable for prosecuting all prison 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.
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