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Police sharpshooters line the roof of the McClain County Courthouse in Purcell during the arraignment of Kevin Underwood Monday afternoon. |
Posted on 04/18/2006 9:47:35 AM PDT by MizSterious
Judge enters ‘not guilty’ plea for UnderwoodBy Tom Blakey
Transcript Staff Writer
PURCELL — A downstairs neighbor was arraigned Monday in last week’s macabre murder of a 10-year-old girl whom the man allegedly had intended to cannibalize.
Kevin Ray Underwood, 26, made his first appearance in the McClain County courtroom of Special Judge Gary Barger and was formally arraigned on charges of first-degree murder in the death of Jamie Rose Bolin.
Most of the 45 to 50 people at the hearing were representatives of local and national media, who have arrived in force in this McClain County town of 5,713 in south central Oklahoma.
The early afternoon hearing was briefly interrupted by a man in the outside hallway, yelling: “Let’s string him up! Baby killer! It could’ve been my daughter or my best friend’s daughter! Hang him!”
The man, identified by sheriff’s deputies as local resident Bruce Schwartz, was carrying a rope and a bucket until he was forcibly detained and led away.
Underwood, in an orange jumpsuit and wearing shackles and leg irons, gazed downward through most of the hearing. He answered Barger’s questions with soft replies. Asked about his financial status, Underwood said he had about $2,800 in a savings account and $1,000 in a checking account at a local bank.
Barger told Underwood he might be entitled to a court-appointed attorney, but would first have to make application to the court. The judge entered a plea of “not guilty” for Underwood and appointed Silas Lyman, capital trial division chief for the Oklahoma Indigent Defense System, and OIDS attorney Diane Box to represent Underwood “on an interim basis for these preliminary proceedings.”
Barger ordered Underwood held without bond, and scheduled a preliminary hearing conference for 9 a.m. May 3.
Meanwhile, Barger scheduled a hearing for 1:15 p.m. today to consider a defense motion for a gag order. In filing the motion, defense attorneys said the case had attracted national attention. “Such widespread interest has been fueled at least in part by inflammatory, prejudicial and conclusory statements made by both the district attorney and Purcell Police Chief David Tompkins to the media,” the motion states.
Bolin was reported missing after she failed to return home Wednesday afternoon from a trip to the library.
Authorities said they believe Underwood lured the 10-year-old into his apartment, struck her several times over her head with a wooden cutting board and suffocated her with his hands and duct tape.
Tompkins said investigators believe Underwood sexually assaulted the little girl after he killed her and planned to eat the corpse.
Meat tenderizer and barbecue skewers found in his apartment were intended for the little girl, Kuykendall said.
Police arrested Underwood at his apartment around 4 p.m. Friday after he’d begun acting suspiciously at a police roadblock.
According to an affidavit filed Monday, FBI agents interviewed Underwood, then asked and received permission to search his apartment. In a bedroom closet, agents found a large plastic container sealed with duct tape. Underwood told agents the container contained comic books, but agents found clothing instead. According to the affidavit, Underwood told the agents: “Go ahead and arrest me.”
Asked where the girl was, Underwood allegedly replied, “She’s in there — I chopped her up,” the affidavit states.
Linda Chiles, the slain girl’s aunt, speaking to reporters after the hearing, said she wanted to put an end to rumors that Jamie was “in chopped pieces.”
When viewed by family members, the body was intact, she said.
“He’d cut her neck, but other than that, the body was fine… She didn’t get tortured, although that was the plan.
“She looks like she’s sleeping,” Chiles said.
Chiles said she didn’t blame the Underwood family, and urged the community to respect family members.
“Kevin is 26 years old and is responsible for his own actions. I don’t blame them.
“Our hearts go out to them, and I know their hearts are with us,” she said.
Tompkins said Monday that Underwood’s parents had visited with Underwood for about 25 minutes, and described the visit as “emotional.”
“It seemed to help the family out a lot and help Kevin out a lot,” he said.
Trained counselors were at Purcell Elementary School Monday, holding groups and generating discussion among the students.
A substitute teacher said many of the children were “really upset” after their classmate’s murder.
“A lot of them are scared about the whole thing,” said Debbie Sims. “I told them that they can’t trust everyone and need to be careful.”
Bolin’s funeral has been set for 11 a.m. Thursday at the Purcell High School gymnasium, followed by graveside services in Guthrie.
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maybe his evil twin did it. or joran vander sloot.
Thanks for putting a damper on what was an otherwise great day.
Judge enters ‘not guilty’ plea for Underwood.
Just wondering: Could the Judge have entered a 'GUILTY' plea instead and saved us all a lot of time and money?
"The early afternoon hearing was briefly interrupted by a man in the outside hallway, yelling: “Let’s string him up! Baby killer! It could’ve been my daughter or my best friend’s daughter! Hang him!”
Hey! I really like this guy!!
Judge Imposes Gag Order in Girl's Slaying
By TIM TALLEY
The Associated Press
PURCELL, Okla. —
An Oklahoma judge issued a gag order Tuesday to stop what defense attorneys called inflammatory statements about the gruesome slaying of a 10-year-old girl, who prosecutors say was killed by a man who wanted to eat human flesh.
Special District Judge Gary Barger met with prosecution and defense attorneys before signing the order prohibiting attorneys, investigators and law enforcement authorities from talking publicly about the case.
The defense argued that "inflammatory, prejudicial and conclusory statements" about the suspect were fueling widespread coverage in the case. Prosecutors said they wouldn't oppose a gag order.
Kevin Ray Underwood, a 26-year-old grocery store stocker, was arraigned Monday on a first-degree murder charge in the death of his young neighbor, Jamie Rose Bolin.
You can read the rest here.
Not really a pinglist, but pinging a few folks who might be interested in this latest development. Seems like a gag order now is a bit like closing the barn door after the horses have already left?
"Seems like a gag order now is a bit like closing the barn door after the horses have already left?"
Even child-killing monsters are guaranteed a fair trial under our Consititution. Hard to understand in this case, but it's worked pretty well so far for our society.
Hopefully a Gag Order will keep the libs from telling me what a great guy he really is and that he's just misunderstood. *Rolleyes*
Miz- Thanks for the ping--
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Even child-killing monsters are guaranteed a fair trial under our Consititution. Hard to understand in this case, but it's worked pretty well so far for our society
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I know depravity has been around for quite some time- but I just really can't imagine that the founding father's could have ever fathomed some of the things we see we increasing frequency - or the judges that pay no mind to the laws they are supposed to be enforcing.
I'm just sayin'...your rights are important in the legal arena whether you're whacked out or not.
I'd hate to see him get away with this if every "i" isn't doted and every "t" isn't crossed.
I wasn't disagreeing - just typing to hear myself type I guess....
Thanks for the head's up, Miz.
The police chief sounded totally shaken by this thing ... the worst thing he'd ever seen ...
http://futureworldruler.blogspot.com/2004/12/all-about-nevada-tan-preteen-japanese.html#comments
Do any of you know how to determine WHEN a comment was made on his blog? All it gives is the time a comment is posted but not the actual date. I'd REALLY like to know if this comment was made back in December 2004 or after he got arrested.
The story he posted was a grisly murder in Japan committed by a child.
The comment to the story was: "Just don't try and eat her."
All those "Comments" have been written since his arrest. The first day I looked at the front page of the blog, all the listed topics had "0" Comments. Ha, someone even "Commented" on all the "0's" and how pathetic it was.
Now, a bunch of the "Anonymouses" have gone through his past bloggings and added Comments in many of the sections. Some of them just copied their first Comment post and pasted it into several different sections. Some of those copy & pastes are just 1 minute apart, from April 13th to the March entries and 2004 entries.
The one you linked is like that - just another of the "Anonymice" making sure they spammed the thing one more time. Gosh, they missed his breathtakingly dull "Happy Birthday" blogging post the entry before that. I'm sure one of the "Anonymice" will get around to it eventually!
Thank you for your response. That's what I was thinking... that all those comments have been made in the past few days. In fact, have you seen his MySpace comment page? Oh. My. Gosh. The site admin pulled his home page rather quickly but left the comment page. I guess they figured that people need to "express themselves." lol!
No, I hadn't seen it since it first came back up a couple of days ago. I see that I wrote then how the "Comments" had slowed to a trickle.
Wrong! Lol, there are now 430 of 'em! They're all out of chronological order, but I see that someone can reply directly to any "Comment," so the threads go on for pages and have all different dates of "Replies" mixed in throughout.
Oh well, one half-page of reading was enough for me! I lasted that long? Guess I thought there might be something insightful. Ha! Well, there was one "nice" one saying that if we want less hate in the world, we need to love more, not just "hate hate."
I hadn't seen this posted on FR (may have missed it), just saw it last night myself - but wanted to share it in case anyone here hadn't seen this. It is an IM that Underwood had with a friend the evening of April 13th, presumably *after* he had killed Jamie Rose Bolin. The introduction is by a blogger who is documenting much of the Internet aspect of the crime. http://optymyst.blogspot.com/
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Yijes. Thanks for the ping. Reading it when iI get to work.
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