Charleston attorney and doctor, Richard Lindsay, described to a judge Tuesday what he remembered thinking while being beaten and robbed last year outside his office on Virginia Street.
"What went through my mind was that," he paused for several seconds, "I could be brain damaged.
"As you know," Lindsay told Kanawha Circuit Judge Charles King, "I practice regularly using my mind. It's really important for me."
King said it was the violence Lindsay described enduring that led him to hand down a 12-year prison sentence to John Underwood Jr. on Tuesday.
Underwood, 38, pleaded guilty earlier this year to first-degree robbery - his first felony conviction, his attorney Barbara Brown, a Kanawha public defender, pointed out.
Underwood's case is unique, Brown told the judge.
He comes from a good family and went to Glenville State College, where he played football, she said. He was honorably discharged from the U.S. Air Force and paid child support until he was arrested on the robbery charge in October 2014.
Brown said that according to a pre-sentence investigation report, conducted by a probation officer, Underwood isn't likely to ever commit another crime or abuse drugs or alcohol.
It was Underwood's wife, Jennifer, who incited him to confront Lindsay, Brown said.
Jennifer Underwood had been fired by Lindsay about two months before the robbery. She had worked for Lindsay as a secretary, but was fired after being accused of stealing money from the office.
Brown said that Underwood's wife couldn't find employment elsewhere because Lindsay had made derogatory remarks about her to a number of people.
Lindsay said Tuesday that wasn't true and that he had never received a call from a potential employer about Jennifer Underwood.
Lindsay said that on Oct. 13, 2014, when the robbery occurred, he was just arriving to work at about 7:45 a.m., when he saw a man sitting on the back porch of his office. He had never met Underwood and didn't know the man sitting on his porch was the husband of the woman he had fired about two months prior, he said.
"The first thing he says is, 'Can I have a drink of water?'" Lindsay recalled Tuesday.
He didn't think anything of it, he said, because often times homeless people will come to his office for food or water.
"He started coming down the steps and said, 'What type of office is this?' He was making small talk to throw me off," Lindsay said. "As I turned, he sucker punched me. I still have scars on the forehead.
"But for people going to work, who started screaming, I think he would have killed me. I was beat pretty bad. I was bloody," Lindsay said.
Underwood never once mentioned his wife, according to Lindsay. He tried to take Lindsay's watch from his wrist and asked for his wallet.
Jennifer Underwood knew Lindsay usually carried a good amount of cash on him, Lindsay said. But when Underwood asked for his wallet, Lindsay said he handed him the wallet in which he carries his credit cards - not his cash.
Underwood threw Lindsay's wallet on the ground down the street from the law firm, when he realized there was only a $50 bill in it, said assistant Kanawha prosecutor Maryclaire Akers.
Akers asked King to sentence Underwood to spend 15 years in prison. Underwood agreed to plead guilty knowing what sentence the prosecutor would recommend.
First-degree robbery doesn't have a cap, meaning a judge can sentence a defendant to any number of years.
"It looks like what he needs is anger management. ... He needs punishment," said Akers. "There are a lot of things that make him look good on paper, but what he did minimizes a lot of that."
Underwood turned to Lindsay, who was sitting in the back of the courtroom, and apologized.
"Sir, I know I what I did was wrong. I know I hurt you," Underwood said "I wish I could make up for it ... I pray for you and your family every day and I hope that one day you can forgive me."
Brown asked the judge to consider an alternative sentence, like probation or home confinement. She suggested King sentence Underwood to 10 years in prison, but suspend it to allow him to complete a faith-based program through the Salvation Army and to prove he could stay out of trouble.
But King said, given the circumstances surrounding the crime, that he had to sentence Underwood to prison time.
"I just can't abide by people attacking and hurting other people - seriously hurting.... You just can't let violence go by. I can't do it," the judge said, before deciding on a 12-year sentence, meeting Akers and Brown in the middle.
"Whether it's not enough, nobody ever knows. Whether it's too much, nobody ever knows," King said.
Reach Kate White at kate.white@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-1723 or follow @KateLWhite on Twitter.