THIRTY YEARS: Hitman sentenced to maximum for shooting a federal witness

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE) – Henry Underwood sat in federal court Thursday morning awaiting sentencing for the attempted murder of a federal witness.

He was relatively compliant given the history of his legal proceedings, his denials, his attempts to represent himself and his refusal to answer questions in court.

Although Underwood took responsibility for the shooting of a federal witness in the early morning hours of June 1, 2018, at her home on Oliver Street in Fort Wayne, the indifference of the crime committed for money convinced federal Judge Holly Brady to forgo the sentence reduce. legal maximum of 30 years.

A violent Facebook post in July, dictated by Underwood as a result of a prison sentence, solidified the case against him as someone who is irredeemable, at least for now.

Underwood, 30, may have hoped Brady would take pity on him as he stood and apologized to the victim, the family, his relatives and friends, mentioning the early and violent loss of his father.

Henry Underwood, a hired hitman who was sentenced to 30 years for shooting a federal witness.

His attorney, Stanley Campbell, raised unidentified mental issues.

“I did what I did and I will be punished for it,” Underwood said, after previously telling the court he wanted to get the sentencing hearing “out of the way” and go to prison.

Brady, an efficient, no-nonsense judge who normally breezes through proceedings, gave Underwood plenty of time to understand the 21 conditions of a future supervised release and gave everyone a chance at the table – Underwood, Campbell and the Assistant U.S. Attorneys Stacey Speith and Anthony Geller – to speak.

The federal filing details the shooting of the young woman whose infant son was in the home when Underwood pushed open the back door and shot her in the stomach around 2:40 a.m.

Once inside, he shot her twice more in the head and arms as she fell to the ground, Geller said. There were defensive wounds on her hands.

Staggering and covered in blood, she apparently got hold of her mother – it is not described in the court documents – who called 911. She “barely survived” and spent three weeks in the hospital, intubated and in a medical coma.

Although she was willing to testify, the victim agreed that Underwood could enter a plea because she did not want to relive the trauma she had endured. She has left town, has a job and is doing her best to reshape her life through therapy, Geller said.

Her ordeal began when a convicted drug dealer, Tyshon Powell, rented a house on Brooklyn Avenue in Fort Wayne through the victim. After the FBI raided this “storehouse” in March 2018, where the agency found drugs and firearms, the victim spoke to police.

Powell became concerned that the victim was cheating on him and tried to bribe her with $10,000, which she rejected. Powell then enlisted a fellow Mafia gang member known as “Breeze Da legit” to talk about killing her.

On May 23, 2018, Powell was indicted on federal charges related to his Brooklyn Avenue stash house and arrested at a Cass Street home on May 31, 2018 and taken to the Allen County Jail.

There he called a woman and “asked her to relay his instructions to ‘Breeze’ to resolve the problem.”

Powell made sure that ‘Breeze’, known as the ‘mechanic’, got some money upfront for the hit. But the man known as “Breeze,” who had his own federal charges, didn’t want to do it.

He viewed Underwood as the likely person “violent enough to get the job done,” the filing said.

That’s what bothered Geller. Underwood’s most disgusting comment in court was, “Apparently I shot someone.”

Geller believes his refusal to answer questions about the shooting, even though he admitted to doing so, showed “a complete lack of remorse” and was evidence that he wanted to “maintain the respect of other criminals and gang members.” .

Both Underwood and Powell were charged in connection with the hit, and Underwood was arrested in January 2021.

The plans for the shooting went south very quickly, police investigators discovered, after a woman identified in the complaint and referred to in this article as “BS” cooperated early last year and received a reduction in an unrelated drug case .

She testified that on May 31, 2018, she drove with Underwood to meet “Breeze” at the Southgate Shopping Center. Underwood got into a dark car with dark window tint and returned to her car with a wad of cash and a “gun on his hip.”

The pistol, which was later adapted to the shooting, was a 9mm with an extended magazine.

The cooperating witness then said she and her boyfriend dropped Underwood off at a home on Winter Street.

When she returned to the Winter Street home to pick up the keys to the rental car she was driving, Underwood told her to “watch the news in the morning.”

The next morning, while driving Underwood and her boyfriend around, Underwood told her that “they” had gone to a woman’s house “to get rid of her” because she was a traitor. The story went that her boyfriend and Coats stayed in the car while Underwood entered the back door and shot her.

Underwood expressed his dismay that he did not receive the full amount because the victim did not die. Nevertheless, it was proven through Underwood’s sister that he bought a $1,500 Dodge truck with the money he earned.

The court found that BS’s testimony was reliable and credible, while Underwood’s denial that he was ever with the three of them and shot the victim was not. Underwood said, “He didn’t need anyone to give him a gun,” according to the filing. He denied knowing “Breeze,” even though the Facebook post he made in July about digging up “Breeze”‘s body and shooting him for the fun of it makes it seem like there was at least an acquaintance.

“Breeze” was shot dead after a card game in February 2023 before his cooperating testimony was complete. Jerico Simmons, who spent the night playing cards with him, according to an affidavit of probable cause, was charged with murder and will stand trial Oct. 29 in Allen Superior Court.

Underwood, who is being held in Adams County because Allen County no longer has a contract with the U.S. Marshalls to hold federal prisoners, will serve the maximum 30-year term along with another federal gun possession case in which he got 8.5 years.

The cases are concurrent, meaning he will serve the sentences together instead of consecutively.

In that case, witnesses said Underwood, whose street name is “Heezy,” shot up a house just days after Christmas in 2019 in an attempt to kill a man at a home on South Monroe Street at the request of the man’s ex-girlfriend .

Underwood’s luck ran out after he was acquitted in the May 2017 shooting of Terrance Miles at East Central Towers. Jaevin Bowie, the accomplice in the shooting, changed his story too often and the jury did not believe him.

On Thursday, Underwood appeared unrepentant and contrite as he left the federal courtroom, his hands and legs shackled. Annoyed by one of the two US Marshalls, he hit back at him and then heard an argument with him as they walked outside and down the hallway. Several local law enforcement officers present for the sentencing left the courtroom to assist as scores of Underwood’s family and friends went outside to take one last look at him.

None of the family wanted to comment.