FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE) — Henry Underwood sat in federal court Thursday morning, awaiting his sentence on the attempted murder of a federal witness.
He was relatively compliant given the history of his legal proceedings, his denials, his attempts at representing himself and his refusal to answer questions in court.
Even though Underwood took responsibility for shooting 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 persuaded federal judge Holly Brady not to reduce the sentence from the statutory maximum of 30 years.
A violent Facebook post in July dictated by Underwood as a result of a jail call hardened the case against him as someone who is irredeemable, at least at this time.
Underwood, 30, may have been hoping that Brady would take pity on him when he stood up and apologized to the victim, the family, his family and friends, mentioning the early and violent loss of his father.
His attorney, Stanley Campbell, brought up unidentified mental issues.
“I did what I did and I’ll get punished for it,” Underwood said, after earlier telling the court that he wanted to get the sentencing hearing “out the way” and go to prison.
Brady, an efficient, no-nonsense judge who typically rips 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 U.S. assistant attorneys Stacey Speith and Anthony Geller – to speak.
The federal filing provides a narrative in the shooting of the young woman whose young son was in the home when Underwood pushed open the back door around 2:40 a.m. and shot her in the stomach.
Once inside he shot her two more times in the head and arms as she fell to the floor, Geller said. There were defense wounds to her hands.
Staggering and covered in blood, she apparently got hold of her mother – it’s not spelled out in the court filings – who called 911. She “barely survived” and was in the hospital for three weeks, intubated and in a medical coma.
Even though she was willing to testify, the victim agreed that Underwood could take a plea because she didn’t want to relive the trauma she endured. She left town, has a job and doing her best, through therapy, to remake her life, Geller said.
Her ordeal began when a convicted drug dealer, Tyshon Powell, rented a home on Brooklyn Avenue in Fort Wayne through the victim. After the FBI raided this “stash house” in March 2018 where the agency found drugs and firearms, the victim spoke to police.
Powell got worried the victim was snitching 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 discuss killing her.
On May 23, 2018, Powell was indicted on federal charges associated with his Brooklyn Avenue stash house and arrested on May 31, 2018 at a home on Cass Street and taken to the Allen County Jail.
That’s where he called a woman and “asked her to pass his instructions on to ‘Breeze’ to fix the problem.”
Powell arranged for “Breeze,” known as the “mechanic,” to have some upfront money for the hit. But the man known as “Breeze,” who had his own federal charges to deal with, didn’t want to do it.
He thought of Underwood as the likely individual “who was violent enough to do the job,” the filing said.
That’s what bothered Geller. Underwood’s most appalling comment in court was “apparently I shot somebody.”
Geller believes his refusal to answer questions on the shooting, even though he admitted to doing it, showed “a complete lack of remorse,” and proof he wanted “to keep the respect of other criminals and gang members.”
Both Underwood and Powell were indicted on charges for the hit and Underwood was arrested in January 2021.
Plans for the shooting went down very quickly, police investigators learned, after a woman identified in the filing and referred to as “B.S.” in this article, cooperated early last year and got a reduction in an unrelated drug case.
She testified that she drove Underwood on May 31, 2018 to meet “Breeze” at the Southgate Shopping Center. Underwood got into a dark car with a dark window tint only to return to her car with a wad of cash and a “gun on his hip.”
The gun, later matched to the shooting, was a 9mm with an extended magazine.
The cooperating witness then said she and her boyfriend dropped Underwood back at a Winter Street home.
Returning to the Winter Street home to retrieve the key to the rental car she was driving, Underwood told her to “watch the news tomorrow morning.”
The next morning, as she was driving Underwood and her boyfriend around, Underwood told her “they” went to a woman’s house “to get rid of her” because she was a snitch. The story went that her boyfriend and Coats stayed in the car while Underwood entered the back door and shot her.
Underwood expressed dismay that he wasn’t paid the full amount because the victim didn’t die. Nevertheless, through Underwood’s sister, it was proven that he purchased a $1,500 Dodge truck with the money he made.
The court found the testimony of B.S. to be reliable and credible while Underwood’s denials of ever being with the three of them and shooting the victim were not. Underwood said “he didn’t need nobody to give him a gun,” the filing said. He denied knowing “Breeze” even though the July Facebook post he made about digging up “Breeze’s” body and shooting him for the pleasure of it makes it seem there was an acquaintanceship at least.
“Breeze” was shot to death 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 a probable cause affidavit, was charged with murder and will stand trial scheduled to begin on 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 30 years maximum along with another federal gun possession case where he was given 8.5 years.
The cases are concurrent which means he will serve the sentences together rather than consecutively.
In that case, witnesses said Underwood, whose street name is “Heezy,” shot up a home several days after Christmas in 2019 in an attempt to kill a man inside 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 death of Terrance Miles at East Central Towers. Jaevin Bowie, the accomplice in the shooting, changed his story too many times and the jury didn’t believe him.
Thursday Underwood appeared unrepentant and unremorseful as he walked out of the federal courtroom, his hands and legs shackled. Irritated at one of the two U.S. Marshall, he swatted back at him and then was heard arguing with him as they proceeded outside and down the hall. Several local law enforcement officers there for the sentencing left the courtroom to help as numerous Underwood family and friends went out to have one last look at him.
No one from the family wanted to make a comment.
