A Cody man accused of killing a Cheyenne woman he’d been stalking in 2019 was sentenced Monday to a term of between 13 years, two months in prison – and 14.5 years in prison.
Joseph Underwood was also ordered to pay $16,750 in fines.
He received credit for the three years and three months he’s spent in jail awaiting sentencing.
But Underwood’s 14.5-year sentence is not for murder. It’s for other, related crimes of which he was convicted in Park County District Court: hiding the woman’s body, possessing a firearm despite a past violent felony, interfering with police and eluding police.
The term is the maximum that those crimes allow. The lower number of about 13 years is required by a 90% split provision on felonies in Wyoming.
Underwood, 51, was never convicted in the Nov. 1, 2019, killing of Angela Elizondo.
Former Laramie County District Attorney LeighAnne Manlove charged him with murder and other felonies that November.
But mental health professionals, Manlove, and ultimately a judge all deemed Underwood too mentally ill to prosecute, and the case was dismissed in 2022.
The Park County Attorney’s Office took over after that – prosecuting Underwood for the two felonies and two misdemeanors that he committed when he drove Elizondo’s lifeless body roughly 400 miles from Cheyenne to the Cody area, to dispose of it in a ravine.
When confronted by law enforcement, Underwood sparked a car chase, then threatened to kill himself during a two-hour standoff that ended when officers lunged for his gun and tased him.
Park County District Court Judge Bill Simpson was cognizant of the alleged murder as he pronounced sentence for the lesser crimes, and he spared no adjectives.
“I fail to see how this could be anything less than horrific, terrible, tragic… monstrous… demonic, cunning, demented,” said Simpson. “I can’t imagine what went through your mind as you (transported) the body of someone you professed to love.”
Underwood had placed deputies and other law enforcement in a “horrendous position,” the judge added.
Perhaps Underwood wouldn’t be able to pay the fines, but even if it were “symbolic,” Simpson said he would order them anyway.
'Why Couldn't You Kill Yourself?!'
Ten of Elizondo’s loved ones, who described themselves as immediate and extended family, and by religious links such as “god-sister,” wept in the court gallery throughout the three-hour sentencing hearing.
“Why couldn’t you kill yourself?” wailed Cecelia Elizondo, Angela’s mother, possibly a reference to Underwood’s failed 2017 suicide attempt, when he shot himself with a .38-caliber pistol. “Why did you have to take my daughter?”
The other family members wept while Ceclia shouted at Underwood. “Now it’s time for you to live in your hell. You will be watched – and become someone’s bitch! And we all know what comes after that – so may you rot in hell mother-f***er!”
Angela’s father, Ricardo Elizondo, worded his statements similarly, calling Underwood a “f***ing coward,” and accusing him of smirking in court.
Underwood’s public defense attorney Timothy Blatt later explained to the judge and the family that he had urged Underwood to look at the victim’s family while they spoke, and that explained his intent gaze toward each as they spoke.
But if they perceived Underwood as smirking, he hadn’t intended to, Blatt said, adding his apologies – and his condolences to the family.
The system had failed them, the family lamented.
Generally, they thanked Simpson for letting even distant relatives speak. They railed against what had happened in Laramie County.
When given the chance to speak, Underwood declined. His four guilty pleas were of the “Alford” variety, meaning they act as guilty pleas, but don’t consist of a confession of guilt. An Alford plea is, rather, a concession that the state has enough evidence to convict someone.
The family also spoke of how precious Angela Elizondo was to them.
“She was like the sun,” said Pamela Ramirez, who described Angela as a solace during hard times.
And these are hard times, she added.
“The only person I want to call, I can’t,” said Ramirez, adding that learning of Angela’s death felt like a bomb detonating in a room.
The victim impact statement that resonated enough with Simpson for him to repeat it came from Angela’s brother, Jeremy Smaro.
Appearing via virtual link due to health issues, Smaro forgave Underwood in court.
“I think about my sister. I think about what she would do,” he said. “So because of that I can say – yeah – I forgive you.”
And that’s not because of Underwood, but simply because, “I don’t want to carry your cross.”
Simpson later pointed to this as an example going forward, of how no one can change the past, but people can learn from it and press on with as much grace as they can find.
Counsel…
Blatt and the prosecutor, Park County Attorney Bryan Skoric, were, in this case, an example of how things should be done, said Simpson.
“(They’ve) done a remarkable job with a very difficult case,” said Simpson, adding that they handled it with “grace, civility.”
Underwood attested Monday that he was satisfied with Blatt’s representation, despite complaining of Blatt in letters to the judge once it became clear his Park County case – unlike his Laramie County case - wouldn’t be dropped to due mental incompetency.
Blatt during his argument pointed to Underwood’s many mental health struggles and injuries. Those include a motorcycle crash in his senior year of high school and his 2017 suicide attempt.
Multiple professionals had concluded that Underwood wasn’t “malingering,” or faking it, Blatt noted.
The defender said he wished he could have faced the family during part of his argument as a sign of compassion, but having to speak into the microphone made that impossible.
Skoric for his part emphasized the four crimes adjudicated in his county – the only ones over which he had jurisdiction.
A hunter found the Angela Elizondo’s body in the ravine the day after her death, and then-Park County Sheriff’s Deputy Robert R. Cooke responded to secure the scene that evening.
At about 10:43 p.m., Cooke watched a vehicle, which he later identified as a white truck, headed his direction. Headlights appeared in the dark as if someone had just switched them on, reads Cooke’s affidavit in Underwood’s Park County case.
A search and car chase followed.
Bureau of Land Management Ranger Robert Lind responded along with deputies and troopers.
Underwood had a handgun trained on his head and was threatening repeatedly to kill himself.
The various agents tried talking Underwood down, but it did no good.
Lind visited with Underwood, who said he’d shot himself before with a .38-caliber pistol near his right temple and still had the scar.
Lind asked if he could feel the scar, the affidavit says.
“And when Joe let him touch the scar, Robert lunged through the open window,” wrote Cooke later.
Lind grabbed the pistol and a round ejected from the chamber as Lind grabbed it. The pistol flew from Underwood’s hand and landed on the truck’s passenger seat.
Lind kept wrestling with Underwood, but when Underwood broke away from Lind’s grasp, both Lind and Cooke pointed their guns at Underwood and commanded him not to move, says the affidavit.
Lind then holstered his weapon and wrestled some more as Underwood reached for his own 9 mm pistol.
Cooke tased Underwood.
Lind opened the truck door, and Underwood rolled onto the highway.
“All right, all right, I quit, I quit,” said Underwood as the taser cycled, the affidavit relates. He was arrested.
This episode shows how much danger Underwood unleashed on law enforcement, Skoric said in court Monday.
Fetus
DCI agents interviewed Underwood multiple times in the jail, says the Laramie County affidavit.
They asked him if they’d find anything concerning in his truck. Underwood reportedly said Angela Elizondo’s clothes were in the truck along with both their cellphones, a 9 mm handgun and a fetus in a butter container.
The fetus was from his girlfriend’s miscarriage from one or two months before her death, according to Underwood’s interview. He was the father of the fetus and had planned on burying it in Park County, he told DCI agents.
Underwood called Angela Elizondo his girlfriend.
Cecelia Elizondo, rather, characterized Underwood as his daughter’s stalker, and said he deceived her as to his true nature and took advantage of her compassionate nature. He frightened her, and she’d turned to police but never received the help she needed, said Cecelia of her daughter’s last days.
The Laramie County Case
The record in the earlier, Laramie County case shows Manlove writing to Laramie County District Court Judge Peter Froelicher that Underwood could not be restored mentally, and asking him to dismiss the case.
And it shows Froelicher doing so.
But the file reveals more back-and-forth between the two.
Manlove on June 1, 2022, asked Froelicher to reschedule a June 22, 2022 evidentiary hearing in the case, because Manlove had already made plans to travel to Georgia starting one month prior – before the court scheduled that hearing.
She called the case a “complex” murder, strangulation and stalking case that she alone had handled for nearly three years, including issues pertaining to Underwood’s plea of not guilty by reason of mental illness.
It wouldn’t be possible, given her office’s workload, to put another prosecutor into that hearing “without compromising justice,” she wrote.
Froelicher five days later answered, denying Manlove’s request. He detailed the case’s tortured history of mental health evaluations, rescheduled hearings, and attempts to restore Underwood to competency.
On April 15, 2022, the Wyoming State Hospital opined in a report that it was likely Underwood coul not be made mentally well.
Manlove objected to that finding, so Froelicher set an evidentiary hearing.
The case wasn’t “overly complex,” wrote Froelicher, and Manlove could have gotten another attorney in her office or someone from the Wyoming Attorney General’s office to help.
Yes, much of Underwood’s nearly-three-years’ prosecution was consumed with mental health evaluations, but even so, “Defendant should not be required to wait for a hearing to determine whether he can be restored to competency for another two to three months so that the attorney for the State can take a personal trip out of state,” wrote the judge.
It’s unclear whether that hearing happened or not.
Froelicher’s office did not immediately respond to a voicemail request for clarification.
Manlove on June 23, 2022, one day after the evidentiary hearing was to unfold, asked the judge to dismiss the case since Underwood could not be restored mentally and was found incompetent, the court file says.
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
