UNDERWOOD

GETS 20 YEARS

Perry Offered 25 In Parents’ Slaying

By LIBBY CUDMORE  • Special to www.AllOTSEGO.com

ONEONTA – Joshua Underwood, 25, who plead guilty to first-degree manslaughter in the New Year’s Day death of his boyfriend, Mark Morrison, was sentenced to 20 years in prison in Otsego County Court.

Officials say around 3:30 a.m. Jan. 1, 2017, Underwood called 911 and reported that he had killed his boyfriend, 52-year-old Mark Morrison of Oneonta. Police found Morrison dead in his Main Street apartment from what was later ruled to be blunt force trauma to the head. Police also alleged that Underwood tried to conceal the crime by stuffing the apartment doorway with newspapers and setting them on fire.

Though originally scheduled to be sentenced in mid-December, Underwood tried to withdraw his guilty plea for first-degree manslaughter, claiming he was coerced by the public defender’s assistant assigned to the case.

Kevin Perry, 23, charged with two counts of first-degree murder and two counts of second-degree murder in the Dec. 12 shooting deaths of his parents, 59-year-old Timothy Perry and 52-year-old Solveig Perry, was scheduled to go before a judge for a pre-trial conference on Friday, but instead he was presented with a plea offer, two counts of second-degree murder in exchange for a 25-year prison sentence. A court date has not yet been set for Perry to announce his decision on the plea offer.

And Julian Vancourt-Wels, the former SUNY Oneonta student charged with felony second-degree attempted murder, felony first-degree assault and misdemeanor fourth-degree criminal possession of a weapon in the Dec. 8 stabbing attack on his girlfriend, was also offered a plea. Prosecutors offered him a 15 yea sentenced in exchange for pleading guilty to assault.