Billy Underwood sentenced
TUSCUMBIA – Noted North Alabama lawyer, Billy Underwood plead guilty this morning to misdemeanor charge of juror tampering in a criminal case. The incident to which Underwood was convicted took place nearly 2 years ago. He was indicted by a Colbert County Grand Jury in January 2018 on a more serious felony charge of attempting to bribe a juror. When the indictment was handed down, his law license was suspended.
The trial began yesterday with jury selection, and testimony was to begin before Cullman County Circuit Judge Martha E. Williams this morning at the Colbert County Courthouse. Judge Williams was brought in to preside over the trial because all of Colbert County’s judges had recused themselves.
According to Alabama Assistant Attorney General John L. Kachelman, III, the plea agreement was reached this morning as the jury waited in chambers to be brought into the courtroom to hear the testimony in the case. At approximately 10:45, the jury entered the courtroom, and was told by Judge Williams that a plea agreement had been reached. Kachelman told The Quad Cities Daily that this was the first and only time that a meaningful discussion of a plea agreement had been discussed. He said that the plea was to a misdemeanor crime, as opposed to the felony charge that Underwood had been facing. The original indictment charged Underwood with “offering, conferring or agreeing to confer any pecuniary benefit upon a juror with the intent that the juror’s vote, opinion, decision or other action as a juror will thereby be corruptly influenced in Colbert County.”
He agreed to permanently surrender his law license and accepted a 6-month term in the Colbert County jail. He will serve 4-months with time off for good behavior. The jail term will begin next Monday, August 26.
One of Underwood’s lawyers, William R. Hovater or Tuscumbia said that certain evidence that they had intended to use in their defense was disallowed by Judge Williams which severely impacted their defense in the case. Given that, it was in his client’s best interest to enter a guilty plea to the lesser charge offered by the State.
