PANAMA CITY — A man accused of being connected with the shooting death of a 17-year-old is scheduled to face a federal jury on charges of transporting firearms across state lines, according to court documents.
Sammie “Trigger Tre” Underwood III, 21, was scheduled Tuesday to appear before jurors in the U.S. District Court of North Florida on March 2 on charges of transporting a .380-caliber pistol and ammo across state lines.
The charges stem from an arrest after Underwood was allegedly connected to a Chevy Tahoe containing various narcotics, paraphernalia and a firearm abandoned May 10. Panama City Police officers tried to perform a traffic stop on the Tahoe, but the driver took off and led police on a short chase that ended when the driver and a passenger jumped from the still-moving vehicle and disappeared on the 700 block of 13th Court.
Officers noticed the driver was wearing a baseball hat they later found in a backyard he had run through. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement matched DNA found on the hat to Underwood.
No injuries were reported after the Tahoe careened driverless through a front yard and into a home, police reported.
Though court documents indicate Underwood’s defense will be that the vehicle belonged to someone else, federal prosecutors filed documents stating they intend to prove Underwood was connected to the drugs and firearm.
Public records do not specify which state the gun and ammunition were brought from into Florida.
Police have said Underwood may be connected to the unsolved slaying of 17-year-old Samuel McGriff in early June of last year, which was the fifth gun homicide in Panama City in the span of a month, but they have yet to specify how. The investigation into McGriff’s death remains active.