By Peter Franceschina Staff Writer Posted
April 15 2004
Three Palm Beach County teens were indicted as adults Wednesday on first-degree murder charges, which carry automatic life sentences, in the shooting death of a man who got into a tussle with the mother of one of the boys.
Timothy Underwood is the youngest of the defendants. His friend, Thomas Gamble, 15, is the next youngest. Neither of the boys faces a potential death sentence because state and federal courts have ruled teens that young cannot be put to death.
Zachary Updike, who was 17 at the time of the February killing but turned 18 in March, does not have the protection of the courts when it comes to the death penalty. The Florida Supreme Court has upheld the death penalty for defendants who were 17 at the time of their crimes.
Wednesday's indictments raise the issue of juveniles being charged as adults with crimes. Underwood's attorney, Frank Kreidler, said the teens should face punishment in the juvenile court system.
"The Palm Beach County justice system has failed Timothy Underwood and all the other juveniles who are being [charged] as adults in this county," Kreidler said. "All children should be protected as children."
Palm Beach County State Attorney's Office spokesman Michael Edmondson said the grand jury found that the teens should be charged as adults. "The evidence supported a first-degree murder charge," he said.
It took Palm Beach County sheriff's investigators some time to unravel the February slaying of Richard Roberts, 42, in part because of conflicting statements given by two of the youths and Underwood's mother, Angela Morgan, arrest reports show.
Those reports made one thing clear, though: The events that led to Roberts' death began in the Morgan home, and it was a family affair.
Morgan and Roberts got into a fight in her home on South Alice Court, west of West Palm Beach, according to sheriff's reports. Morgan grabbed a gun and tried to fire at Roberts but couldn't get a clear shot at him, reports said, and Underwood then struck Roberts in the head with a baseball bat, knocking him unconscious.
Morgan, 35, and the man who lived with her, Donald Faircloth, 51, put Roberts in the back of a pickup and, accompanied by Underwood and Updike, dumped him in the woods, according to reports. Morgan gave investigators several versions of what happened next: She said she shot Roberts, but she also said her son and Updike went back later and shot him.
Underwood told investigators he, Updike and Gamble went back and shot Roberts, with Updike firing first into Roberts' head. Underwood told investigators he fired a shot into Roberts' cheek, and Gamble said he fired one shot into Roberts' arm.
"According to Gamble, it was decided that all three subjects would shoot the victim in order to share the blame and to ensure that no one would tell the police what happened," one sheriff's report says.
The grand jury instructed prosecutors to file charges of kidnapping and being an accessory to murder against Morgan and Faircloth. Additionally, grand jurors directed that Morgan be charged with aggravated battery and Faircloth with being an accessory to aggravated battery.
Peter Franceschina can be reached at pfranceschina@sun-sentinel.com or 561-832-2894.
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