Blount county man pleads guilty in sex cases

A 64-year-old Blount County man pleaded guilty Thursday to 10 charges of sex crimes against four children under the age of 12.  Wade Andrew Underwood Jr., of Locust Fork, entered the guilty plea to all counts against him  thursday in the Blount County Circuit Court. Those charges included: four felony counts of first-degree sodomy, four  felony counts of sex abuse of a child under the age of 12, and two felony counts of first-degree rape. He had been indicted by a Blount County Grand Jury in January 2012. The indictments followed an investigation that began with the complaint from one child of inappropriate activity by Underwood. Three other victims were then discovered. All victims were under the age of 12 at the time the abuse began.  Underwood was sentenced to 20 years on each of the four sodomy counts, 20 years on each of the two rape counts, and 10 years on each of the four sex abuse counts.  Underwood ran an orphanage in Texas in the 1980s.