Murder trial confession tape played to jury

By Stacey Cameron, NEWS 9

Both sides in the Kevin Underwood murder trial have rested their cases. Friday, the jury is expected to determine his guilt and Underwood's fate may have been sealed by his own words.

Prosecutors have shown a mountain of evidence against Kevin Underwood, but perhaps the most damaging is his cold, articulate, and almost emotionless confession.

NEWS 9's Legal Analyst Irven Box described his reaction to the prosecution's last piece of evidence, Underwood's videotaped confession with the FBI.

"I didn't think anything said in a courtroom could shock me like this; this has shocked me," Box said. "I've seen what I thought was the worst of the worst. This person is beyond that."

For more than an hour, the jury watched the grainy black and white video and listened to how Underwood planned to commit murder and carry out a cannibalistic fantasy.

"To hear that he didn't care what gender the person was," Box said. "He was talking about 5-year-old boys running around the apartment, like he might have settled on one of the 5-year-old boys."

But Underwood didn't settle for a young boy, instead he chose to kill 10-year-old Jamie Rose Bolin.

Underwood's reason, he "kinda liked her" saying Jamie "was a very trusting kid." So trusting, if he hadn't murdered Jamie then "it coulda ended up being someone else" killing her.

At one time the agents asked him did you know you'd be punished if you did this, and he said "Yes, I knew I'd be punished."

Despite his fear of getting caught, Underwood explained he kept duct tape and handcuffs near his apartment door, so if a victim like Bolin came by, he could "restrain 'em hopefully, before they had time to yell or anything."

"I have never in my life heard anything, anywhere in this country that approaches this," Box said.

In his confession, Underwood also explained in graphic and brutal detail that's far too graphic for TV about how he killed Jamie and what he planned to do afterwards.

Anyone watching the jury could tell they were greatly disturbed by the tape.

Extended coverage of the Underwood trial.