Jury Deliberations Begin For Tuscaloosa Man Accused Of Murdering Ex-Girlfriend

TUSCALOOSA, AL —A Tuscaloosa County jury began deliberations Wednesday in the murder trial of a Tuscaloosa man accused of killing his ex-girlfriend and leaving her body in a parked car on the side of U.S. Highway 82 near Duncanville in the summer of 2021.

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As Patch previously reported, the body of Syibrieka Underwood, 27, was found in the passenger seat of her white Ford Focus in the early morning hours of July 28, 2021.

Underwood's ex-boyfriend, Terek Herron-Antone, was developed as a suspect through an anonymous online tip shortly thereafter and was eventually charged with murder and felon in possession of a firearm.

Tuscaloosa County Circuit Court Judge Allen May has presided over the legal proceedings, with this trial representing the second attempt for Herron-Antone following a mistrial in May due to jury issues.

THE TRIAL

Herron-Antone appeared in court on the first day of the trial wearing a dark suit and lavender shirt. He said nothing and showed little emotion as his defense attorneys and prosecutors presented their opening statements to the jury.

Assistant District Attorney Thomas Marshall is the lead prosecutor for the state in this case and told the jury that evidence indicated Herron-Antone had shot and killed Underwood during a physical altercation at his home before leaving her body slumped in the passenger seat of her car on the side of the highway and without any kind of identification.

"She was left on the side of the road like trash," Marshall said during his opening statement.

Alabama Law Enforcement Agency State Trooper David Council, who was the first to find Underwood's body as he originally intended to place a tow tag on the seemingly abandoned vehicle, later testified that he first thought someone was sleeping in the passenger seat.

Trooper Council then noticed blood and bruising on the individual's face and immediately contacted his supervisor.

The jury and those in the court were later shown photos taken at the first of two crime scenes and during Underwood's autopsy, which showed Underwood with a star-shaped entry wound between her right eye and temple.

An autopsy found that the primary .40 caliber bullet fragment passed through her skull and out of the back of her head but was stopped by the thick hair of Underwood's weave — a fortuitous development for investigators after the fact, who were able to recover the bullet fragment that otherwise might've been lost.

Pointing out the central details of his case to clear Herron-Antone in the eyes of the jury, Tuscaloosa defense attorney Stuart Albea asserted in his opening statement that there were no witnesses to the murder, no DNA or fingerprints connecting Herron-Antone to the murder, and no murder weapon recovered by investigators.

Nothing other than testimony from a bitter ex-girlfriend connected Herron-Antone to the murder, Albea insisted to the jury.

Perhaps the best place to start in the state's case against Herron-Antone is how he first became identified as a potential suspect.

Indeed, Marshall told the jury during the first day of the trial on Tuesday that investigators had a difficult time initially identifying the young woman, who had no purse or identification in the car where she was found dead of a gunshot wound to the head — roughly eight miles from the Bibb County line.

The vehicle was also not registered to Underwood, but to a close family friend who recently helped her finance it. After running the registration, however, investigators were reportedly no closer to positively identifying the deceased woman.

That is until an anonymous online tip was received by investigators, which alleged Herron-Antone likely had something to do with the young woman's death.

Another of Herron-Antone's ex-girlfriends, who turned out to be the state's star witness, testified that he was involved in Underwood's murder.

Tuscaloosa Patch has chosen not to publish her name out of respect for her safety*

She originally testified in May during the proceedings that ended in a mistrial and, during a pre-trial hearing on Monday, it was believed that she would be unwilling to testify a second time due to her mental state and the emotional stress placed on her in the aftermath of the shooting.

The witness described a complicated seven-year relationship with Herron-Antone, which ended after the eventual murder suspect allegedly cheated on her and gave her a sexually transmitted disease.

Still, the state's star witness appeared in court Tuesday to testify on the first day of the trial and described her interactions with Herron-Antone in the hours after Underwood was killed that prompted her to ask a friend to submit the anonymous online tip from her phone in the vicinity of the Skyland Walmart.

Indeed, she testified that she woke up to numerous missed calls from Herron-Antone, who said he wanted to come to her house. She said he sounded "frantic, in a rush," as he allegedly told her "I did something bad."

Phone records admitted as evidence show that Herrone-Antone called her a total of 23 times from more than one number between an hour and a half, beginning at 4:28 a.m. on July 28.

This detail visibly grabbed the interest of the jury, with nearly all 14 of the people in the box scribbling in their notebooks.

As for the demographics of the jury — 12 jurors and two alternates — it is composed of eight White members and six Black members (nine women and five men). However, Judge May named the two alternates (two White men), thus leveling out the racial makeup of the jury at 6-6.

The female witness told the jury that she caved under Herrone-Antone's persistence to see her and told him she would meet him at her cousin's apartment complex — City Heights at Skyland. She chose this location because she did not want him to come to her residence and wanted others around so she felt safe.

Herrone-Antone was supposedly dropped off at the apartment complex, where she said he told her Underwood had shown up a few hours before at his home in Duncanville brandishing a knife and a physical altercation ensued. He then allegedly told the woman his handgun went off during the fight as he tried to strike Underwood with his arm.

The lone bullet, fired at a close enough range to leave a clear soot deposit and a star-shaped entry wound in her temple, likely killed the young mother instantly.

Becoming emotional on the stand, she said Herrone-Antone informed her that he had moved Underwood's car and hidden any personal effects that might help police identify her — a notion prosecutors insisted showed that he knowingly tried to buy as much time as possible to dispose of evidence, namely the handgun used to kill Underwood.

"I don't know why he told me this and I wish he had never told me this," she said through tears on the witness stand, before looking at Herrone-Antone on the other side of the courtroom and addressing him directly. "I want to know why you put me through this?"

She quickly composed herself, though, and went on to tell the jury that the interaction with Herrone-Antone lasted between 30 minutes to an hour, but ultimately devolved into a verbal fight with her ex-boyfriend.

"I was scared because he had cussed me out," she said.

Under cross-examination by Albea, the woman was asked about her tumultuous relationship with Herrone-Antone, her ongoing struggles with mental health issues, and her reliance on "prophets" to inform her worldview.

In his opening statement Tuesday morning, Albea first cast doubts over the state's star witness as a reliable narrator and instead framed her testimony as that of a scorned lover with a serious axe to grind against an ex-boyfriend who had wronged her in multiple ways over their seven-year relationship.

One question asked by Albea stood out when he inquired about her fear of Herrone-Antone during that interaction off of Skyland Boulevard.

Indeed, she testified that, at one point during the in-person conversation with Herrone-Antone, she left for a short time to get "snacks" at a nearby gas station.

What's more, Albea pointed out that she had entered a motion to be withdrawn from the case just ahead of the re-trial, along with a statement saying she did not have "accurate information" about the case.

"You came in here with inaccurate information, per your statement and the words of a prophet," Albea said to the witness, once again hammering the fact that she admitted to seeking guidance from fringe religious gurus in an attempt to undermine the credibility of her testimony in the eyes of the jury.

Prosecutors quickly provided the state's interpretation of the statement and clarified that it was meant to provide context that she had not witnessed the shooting firsthand and that all of the information she received in the hours that followed came solely from the man accused of the murder.

Regardless, it was accepted by both sides and confirmed by investigators that it was state's star witness who submitted the tip that led to Herrone-Antone becoming a suspect.

While unrelated to his most recent charges, Patch previously reported that Herron-Antone has an extensive criminal record that includes violent offenses.

Terek Herron-Antone

According to court documents previously obtained by Patch, Terek Herron-Antone was convicted in connection to a shooting in December 2012 at a Mapco gas station on Oscar Baxter Drive that left one man critically injured.

While irrelevant to the murder of Syibrieka Underwood, investigators believed Herron-Antone drove the vehicle involved in the 2012 shooting and provided a gun to one of the shooters.

Herron-Antone went on to plead guilty to possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and was sentenced to 71 months in prison in that case.

Numerous investigators who testified this week said that the first step in developing probable cause against Herron-Antone for Underwood's murder was the search warrant carried out at his residence on Wuthering Heights Lane in Duncanville.

The doublewide mobile home was his grandmother's before her recent death.

Herron-Antone, along with at least one other relative mentioned during testimony this week, have been living there since.

Examining the second crime scene in the case, investigators with the Tuscaloosa Violent Crimes Unit first noticed a smoldering burn pile near the home. The only thing of note recovered from the ashes was a plastic shell tray from a box of 9mm shells.

Assistant District Attorney Thomas Marshall, during his closing arguments Wednesday afternoon, reminded the jury that it was July when investigators carried out the search warrant — not the ideal time of year to sit leisurely around a fire.

Tuscaloosa County Sheriff's Office Lt. Michael Hall was a sergeant at the time of the murder and was a supervisor within the Tuscaloosa Violent Crimes Unit when he was called out to the second crime scene on Wuthering Heights Lane.

Inside the house, they found a pair of Nike shoes with fresh soot and ash on the soles, along with what appeared to be a black glove that Albea pointed out was never entered as evidence, despite being mentioned by the prosecution as an indication of Herron-Antone's guilt.

But it would be Hall, through what he described as a mix of luck and old-fashioned police work, who made the biggest breakthrough during the investigative phase of the case — one that led to Herron-Antone being charged with murder.

Indeed, during a walkthrough of the Duncanville property, Hall spotted a circular earring featuring an "S," slightly hidden in the grass.

"It was a little bit of luck I guess," he told the jury Wednesday. "The light hit it just right and it kind of shined. So I thought this must be important."

Graphic photos of Underwood slumped dead in the passenger seat of her car were once again shown to the jury by prosecutors. Close-up versions of the pictures clearly show the same circular "S" earring on Underwood's left ear — opposite the side of her head where she was shot at close range by a .40 caliber handgun.

Hall also said several blood droplets and one relatively larger bloodstain were noted in the grass just off of the driveway.

Bloodstain cards from Herron-Antone's yard and Underwood's car were sent to the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences, with Birmingham Regional DNA Technical Leader Mary Reid testifying during the first day of the trial that the samples submitted, including from the yard in Duncanville, matched Underwood's DNA profile to an incredibly high degree of certainty.

Wednesday's proceedings saw the evidence presented shift from the murder itself and the two crime scenes to Herron-Antone's involvement in the case.

The most telling testimony came from retired Tuscaloosa Violent Crimes Unit investigator Jason Mellown, who was one of the lead investigators on the case in the immediate aftermath of the shooting.

Along with his testimony concerning his proximity to the case over the years, Mellown testified regarding three phone calls made by Herron-Antone in April 2024 from the Tuscaloosa County Jail on the eve of his trial that ended in a mistrial.

In each of the calls, Herron-Antone can be heard asking a friend to get in touch with the female witness to ask her to stay out of the way as his trial in May approached — a trial where she also took the stand to testify.

One of the calls showed a consistent message he was trying to get the person on the other end to pass on to the woman: "I love you. I miss you and we need to talk to get some understanding."

Stuart Albea, the defense attorney for Herron-Antone, took issue with the characterization of the phone calls and questioned why his client hadn't been charged with witness tampering following such a revelation if it was such condemning detail.

Both sides echoed much of what was said Tuesday morning in opening statements as closing arguments were offered up Wednesday afternoon after hours of testimony.

Assistant District Attorney Thomas Marshall pointed out that the state had entered 101 pieces of evidence in the case, before reminding the jury of the angle of the shot that killed Underwood.

"This was not an accident, this was murder," Marshall told the jury. "And he treated her like trash, like she was nothing to him and thought he'd get away with it."

Albea's closing argument also reminded the jury of his opening statement as he underscored a lack of a murder weapon, DNA or fingerprint evidence and anything else attaching Herron-Antone to the murder apart from the testimony of an ex-girlfriend.

"He is charged as being a person prohibited from having a firearm, but they [the state] have no firearm," he said. "And why would anyone confess to a scared ex-lover that they killed another ex-lover? ... The state's case is built entirely on circumstantial evidence."

Jury deliberation began at approximately 2:52 Wednesday afternoon and continued late into Wednesday evening before the jurors were sent home.

Deliberations will resume Thursday morning.

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