Dudley man gets prison time for beating and shooting man
By Jack Stephens
Published in News on July 15, 2005 1:47 PM
A 41-year-old man from Dudley has been sentenced in Wayne County Superior Court to six to eight years in prison for beating and shooting of another man and setting fire to his home earlier this year.
Anthony Alphant Lee of Timothy Street pleaded guilty to assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill while inflicting serious injury. Judge Jay D. Hockenbury Jr. sentenced Lee to 70 to 93 months.
Lee
Charges of attempted first-degree murder, first-degree burglary, armed robbery and attempted first-degree arson were dropped.
The victim, Rod-erick Underwood, 43, was found early Jan. 11 in his mobile home on Everittsville Road near Dudley.
Underwood was rushed by ambulance to Wayne Me-morial Hospital, where he was treated for multiple gunshot wounds, and then transferred to Pitt County Memorial Hospital in Greenville. He was treated and eventually released.
Sheriff's deputies were dispatched at about 3:20 a.m. after a 911 call about a shooting in the mobile home.
Lee was arrested at a neighbor's home after a day-long investigation by the Wayne County Sheriff's Office. Sheriff's detectives said information from a confidential informant led to the arrest. They said the crime may have been drug-related.
Underwood had been convicted of selling cocaine in Wayne County, according to court records.
At first, Lee was held without bond, but later his secured bond was reduced to $500,000. He could not post the bond and remained in jail until this week's sentencing hearing.
Lee also was ordered to pay $18,411.33 in restitution for Underwood's medical bills and $390 to his court-appointed lawyer, James Copeland.
Lee has a lengthy criminal record. Sheriff's Capt. George Raecher said Lee was convicted of second-degree murder in 1992 in New York and was sentenced to three to six years in Sing Sing Prison in Ossining, N.Y. He also was convicted of a misdemeanor weapons charge in Wayne County.