Speaker 1: Sword and Scale contains adult themes and violence, and is
not intended for all audiences.
Speaker 2: Listener discretion is advised. He came over in the corner
with a hammer and just started beating me, unmercifully, just
beating me and beating me, and the blood was discussing.
He said, all of you have just stitched.
Speaker 3: Me, and I've got to kill you.
Speaker 4: You've likely heard the phrase kindness is its own reward.
This is a belief many of us have. They good
deeds might bring a little good karma, and then helping
someone in need is just the right thing to do.
Most of the time that belief proves true, but not always.
Sometimes kindness is twisted into something dark and ruthless. A
simple favorite can spiral into a choice that should never
have been made. There's another saying, one that speaks to
the crueler side of fate. No good deed goes unpunished,
and in the rarest most brutal cases, an act of
generosity doesn't only lead to regret. It leads to suffering.
It leads to bloodshed, it leads to death.
Speaker 5: This is Guardian Medical. Do you dispatch for medical police
or is it an different number? Okay, we have a
medical alert for client at forty four Cleveland Street.
Speaker 4: At around two am on November sixth, twenty fifteen, in Youngstown, Ohio,
nine to one one Dispatch received a call from the
healthcare provider, Guardian Medical. They requested that an ambulance be
said to the home of one of their clients.
Speaker 1: Okay, what's going on there?
Speaker 5: We had the medical alert to go off and we
did not be seeper response over the phone or over
the two way And can you tell me about the
patient here or honestly I'm showing is that she has
MS and cannot walk and the age they have bound
is forty one.
Speaker 1: What's her name, Erica Huff.
Speaker 4: After this call came in, an ambulance was quickly dispatched
to the home of forty one year old Erica Huff.
Speaker 6: Guardian Medical call, They want you to go to forty
four Cleveland Street.
Speaker 1: The alarm went off there.
Speaker 6: And they didn't say what was wrong, right, No, they
didn't make any contact with her.
Speaker 1: It's a forty one year old female, Erica Huff. She
has MS and cannot walk. Yeah, I think we've been
there before. Forty four Cleveland right.
Speaker 7: Good.
Speaker 1: More than thank you.
Speaker 4: This wasn't the first time emergency services had been called
to Erica's house, and on the surface, it seemed like
just another routine call. But in less than two hours,
that assumption would be shattered. What started as a simple
ambulance dispatch spiraled into chaos. Three ambulances, two fire trucks,
and several police officers would descend on Erica's home. Among
the many people who arrived was a homicide detective.
Speaker 8: My name is Ron Roadway, my official title. In twenty fifteen,
I was detective sergeant with the Youngstown Police Department, assigned
to the homicide bureau. Erica Huff was a forty one
year old who resided on the south side of Youngstown.
She had a severe handicap and health issues. She had
multiple carosis ms, she was bedridden. She didn't live by herself,
but she had health aids with her. Her mother was
pretty active in her life, helping her out.
Speaker 4: Erica Huff relied on a wheelchair to get around and
needed daily assistance with even the most basic tasks like bathing,
preparing meals, and doing laundry, things most of us take
for granted. Living with multiple sclerosis is no walk in
the park. The disease, which attacks the brain and spinal cord,
can cause extreme fatigue, muscle weakness, severe pain, and a
host of other debilitating symptoms. Fortunately, Erica had a loving
mother and stepfather who cared for as well as in
home caregivers from the company comfort Keepers who checked on
her regularly. Perhaps the hardest part for Erica wasn't her
own suffering, It was the fact she couldn't care for
her five year old daughter. Her illness made motherhood an
uphill battle, forcing her to rely on her mom and
stepdad to raise the little girl. No matter how much
she loved her child. Multiple sclerosis had stolen the simple
joys of being a hands on parent. But despite all
these challenges, Erica did her best to push through each day. Then,
on November sixth, twenty fifteen, her already challenging life turned
into a nightmare.
Speaker 8: On November sixth, twenty fifteen, the first call I Believe
went out around two o'clock in the morning two o'clock am.
It was a medical alert from the home of Erica
Huff on Cleveland Street. EMTs and an ambulance responded to.
Speaker 4: The home that morning. Erica's life Alert necklace was activated
triggering an ambulance dispatch. For the next hour or so,
all was quiet. The responding paramedics never requested assistance or
called in an update. Then, at around two forty five am,
nine to one one received a second call, this time
from a man named Lonnie Johnson Town One.
Speaker 9: Yeah, this is Lonnie, forty four Cleveland. My wife come
over because of my daughter.
Speaker 10: Her daughter's along with a house, and so she came
over here to see what's going on. And then it
was taking so long. Each time I called, nobody answered.
So I came over here and she hollered, run run,
and she screamed aloud, and I'm not gonna set the door,
but the lights are off. Now.
Speaker 1: I don't know what's going on in that house.
Speaker 9: I don't want to go in there. And some that
and happened.
Speaker 10: I need to cop to come to forty four Cleveland
Street in Youngstown, Ohio.
Speaker 1: Okay, are you still there? Though?
Speaker 10: Yeah, I'm I'm I'm about maybe a two or three
colleagues away from that house. Because Ronnie Johnson Jr.
Speaker 1: She screamed and told me.
Speaker 11: To run run Lonnie, run, And.
Speaker 10: I went to go to the door and I turned
around and called come back and call you guys cause
something and then the light everything is off in that house.
The light's off.
Speaker 9: I don't know what's going on. I need some help.
Speaker 1: Okay, Wellsten, tomw okay, ca very please.
Speaker 4: Following Lonnie's call, police were sent to Erica's house, but
their arrival wasn't as fast as Lonnie had hoped.
Speaker 1: Yankstown nine on one.
Speaker 10: Yeah, I just called out long ago and asked him
for a police to come the forty fourth Cleveland Street.
Speaker 12: They're on their way.
Speaker 1: Okay, oh wow, okay, okay bye.
Speaker 4: Growing impatient, Lonnie called nine one one a second time. Meanwhile,
dispatchers were struggling to understand why police were being sent
to the same address where an ambulance had already been dispatched.
Why hadn't they heard anything from the paramedics on scene.
Speaker 6: Did you transport the lady from forty four Cleveland or Cleveland?
Speaker 13: Oh that was the medical warm Yeah.
Speaker 14: No, it was false alarm.
Speaker 1: Oh okay, it was a false alarm. Once we finally
go out there, it was false. They didn't take her nowhere.
Speaker 4: Strangely, the ambulance paramedics reported the initial call as a
false alarm, but when police showed up about an hour later.
It was immediately obvious that something was terribly wrong. Smoke
was pouring out of Erica's windows. Her house was on fire.
Officers quickly requested fire trucks and more ambulances.
Speaker 1: I think we need you back at forty four Cleveland.
Speaker 15: Okay, what's going on there?
Speaker 1: Okay? I sent you guys there before for an alarm,
and now the police were called there.
Speaker 6: Some guy called the police there and they're saying there's
a deceased female.
Speaker 1: Oh, I don't know.
Speaker 6: They got the fire department on the way there now
and to gain entry to get into then too ambulances.
I don't know what's going on, and I think for
two yes.
Speaker 4: Not long after arriving on scene, the responding police officers
made a chilling discovery. They found a dead body.
Speaker 1: I still don't know.
Speaker 6: He was saying there was a dead body there, didn't
I asked for the fire department, and then I asked
for another ambulance.
Speaker 8: Yeah.
Speaker 16: Now markets got unseen and said that there's an occupied
structure fire there.
Speaker 1: We only sent one truck. We didn't call for no.
Speaker 8: Yeah, now they're calling for another a go on.
Speaker 7: Now they're requesting ladder truck and battalion too. So I'm
not sure exactly what's going on. I just wanted to
give you a headtipths Inspire Department is involved and there's
a dead body there.
Speaker 4: As more cops, firefighters, and paramedics arrived, dispatchers scrambled to
gather information, trying to make sense of the chaos, but
one detail stood out. The original emergency call had been
dismissed as a false alarm. But why what had actually
happened with the first ambulance?
Speaker 17: What do they have going on there?
Speaker 1: Okay, they got a medical alarm.
Speaker 18: They fed at fifty five to fifty five, got there,
said it was a false alarm, goes they're not something door,
somebody says run, he calls unknown trouble. They get there
and say they have a dead female. They have a
dead female there, apparently that's what they officer said when
they got there. Okay, that's all they know that a
dead femail enough.
Speaker 6: How did you guys determine that it was a false
alarm on Cleveland Street?
Speaker 16: They actually, our courage just told us that a thirty
something or so. Your old male he answered the door
and said everything's fine.
Speaker 15: It was a false alarm.
Speaker 6: Thirty something ish year olds he may have thirty something
year old male right.
Speaker 1: Answered the door and said everything was okay. It was
a false Yeah.
Speaker 4: It turned out that when paramedics reached Erica's home, a
man waved them off, insisting there was no emergency. Without
verifying anything, the paramedics left, never checking on Erica, never
stepping inside her house. That decision would prove to be disastrous. Eventually,
Detective Ron Roadway arrived on the scene and spoke with
the responding officers. It began trying to make sense of
the mayhem.
Speaker 8: Officers were dispatched to the Cleveland Street residents. When they arrived,
they of course were going to run the primitive house.
They heard and then noticed that the air conditioning y'ared
out of one of the bedrooms was being pushed out.
Speaker 1: We got there. It was weird.
Speaker 17: You hear the alarm going off, and we go to
the back and then Thowe was trying to push out
the air conditioner in the back.
Speaker 1: Uh huh.
Speaker 7: And we opened the.
Speaker 17: Window and ripped the air conditioner out, pulled this woman
out and she was bloody head to toe, and then
the other woman within their dead.
Speaker 8: And that's when they made entry into the house and
discovered two victims in the house.
Speaker 4: As officers approached the back of the burning home, they
spotted movement. A person was trying to escape the house
by pushing an air conditioner out of a window. Police
rushed to assist, pulling a bloody woman from the bedroom window.
She'd been beaten nearly to death. Inside that same room,
lying on the floor and surrounded by flames, was another woman.
She was dead, her body was battered, her skin singed
by the growing fire. The police pushed into the house
through the back door. In the dining room, they found
yet another person, a man collapsed under a table, seemingly unconscious.
Speaker 17: Our guys went there for unknown trouble. Founded deceased female,
fears to be beaten to death. Found another female beat
almost to deaf. Found a male almost almost dead. They
not really sure what happened with him. And their house
was on fire. Somebody set the house on fire trying to.
Speaker 1: Cover it up.
Speaker 17: No shit, Yeah though, fd's trying to put the fire
out without disturbing the crime.
Speaker 7: Scene too much.
Speaker 1: But we got at least one dead right now and.
Speaker 7: Two that are circling the drain.
Speaker 4: In total, three people were pulled from Erica's burning home,
two women and a man. One of them had already
lost their life, and the two others were rushed to
a nearby hospital. As firefighters worked to put out the fire,
Detective Ron Roadway prepared for what he knew would be
a long, grueling investigation. By the time the case was closed,
multiple charges had been filed, including murder and attempted murder,
and in the end, thanks to the relentless efforts of investigators,
a violent and ruthless killer would face the ultimate punishment.
On the morning of November sixth, twenty fifteen, an ambulance
was dispatched to the home of forty one year old
Erica Huff, who suffered from multiple sclerosis, but when the
paramedics arrived, a man outside the house waved them off,
insisting there was no emergency and that Erica was fine.
They left without ever stepping inside.
Speaker 6: Okay, Originally, at two o'clock we got a call from
the medical alarm people.
Speaker 1: Guardian Medical said that there was an.
Speaker 6: Alarm and they didn't have any contact with the person
that living at that house, so I had to send
an ambulance.
Speaker 1: There was a medical alarm.
Speaker 6: The ambulance responded and they cleared it. Some guy answered
the door when they got there and said that it
was a false alarm. Everything was okay and send them away,
and then all hell broke loose.
Speaker 4: Shortly after paramedics drove away, a chilling nine to one
one call came in. This time it wasn't a request
for an ambulance, it was a call for police.
Speaker 6: And then almost an hour later I looked up in
the addresses on the screen again, this guy named Ronnie
call and he said that he got to the door
somebody yelled run.
Speaker 1: The house was dark and he didn't know what was
going on. So that's when she put in unknown trouble.
Speaker 4: Officers responded to the call, unsure of what they were
walking into. When they arrived, they found part of the
house was on fire. Before the flames spread, they managed
to pull two women from the home. Both had been
savagely beaten, their bodies drenched in blood. One of them
was dead and the other was barely clinging to life. Eventually,
a Youngstown, oh Ohio prosecutor joined the investigation, and the
deceased woman's identity was confirmed. It was Erica Huff.
Speaker 12: My name is Don Candello Mesa. In twenty fifteen, I
was the chief trial Counsel for the Mahoning County Prosecutor's Office.
In twenty fifteen, Erica Huff was forty one years old.
She was a mother, a sister, a daughter, as she
lived in Youngstown, Ohio. She had debilitating MS and she
was in a wheelchair at that point. She hadn't always
been in a wheelchair, but at that point she was,
and she had some home health care aids that would
come and help her get ready for bed and cook
and do other things around the house. She had a
five year old daughter who stayed with her parents, also
in Youngstown, and she would visit often with her daughter,
but she needed care to help her do everything from
day to day.
Speaker 4: The woman who had survived the brutal attack was Erica's mom,
sixty eight year old Denise Johnson. She had been beaten
nearly to death before the fire broke out.
Speaker 12: Denise Johnson was Erica Huff's mother. She was retired, I
believe at the time, but she had taken on a lot.
So when Erica went to a wheelchair and had to
sort of give up custody of her child to her parents,
Denise had retired and she was with Erica's stepfather at
the time, Lonnie Johnson, and they lived in Youngstown and
took care of Denise's daughter.
Speaker 4: Erica's five year old daughter depended on her grandmother Denise
and her stepgrandfather, Lonnie Johnson for care Erica's illness made
it impossible to raise the little girl alone, and her
parents took on the role of primary caregivers while also
assisting Erica with her daily needs. They were devoted, loving people,
but on that horrific morning, tragedy struck. Erica was found
dead in her bedroom, beaten so severely that she never
stood a chance, and as if that wasn't enough, the
killer had set the house on fire to cover up
the crime. With Denise barely alive and rushed to the hospital,
police turned to the only person left the question, Erica's stepfather,
Lonnie Johnson, at seventy six years old. He was brought
to the station for an interview with the homicide detective
Ron Roadway.
Speaker 19: From what we understand, your wife's daughter, your stepdaughter. Her
name is Erica huff Aza Gras and she lives at
forty four Cleveland Street.
Speaker 20: She suffered from MS Is that correct? Yeah, she has okay,
pretty bad. Advanced her some wheelchair to the bulls to
the wheelchair okay, and she can't walk. She had people
coming even clean her up, and she can't even walk. No,
she can't take a step.
Speaker 19: And I believe comfort Keepers is one of the companies
that comes in and takes.
Speaker 14: Care of her.
Speaker 4: Detectives started with routine background questions before shifting to what
really mattered. The morning of the attack. Annie explained that
he'd been asleep at home when it all began.
Speaker 19: And it's my understanding somewhere shortly around two o'clock this morning,
your stepdaughter wears a medical alert, and that medical alert
went off. Rural Metro Ambulance Company was notified, and your
wife was notified.
Speaker 14: Is that correct. I'm assuming you folks were sleeping when
you got the call. Oh yeah, okay. And then your
wife gathered herself together and went over to the house.
Speaker 9: Yes, she said, on the wool and turned that alarm off.
Speaker 15: Now doesn't go awful lot?
Speaker 14: Is that something what happened every now and then?
Speaker 9: But she went over the forty and pushed a button,
you know, took care of it, right.
Speaker 21: But she said that you stay home with the granddaughter,
Erica's daughter and stays with us ninety five percent of
the time, right, And she said, you stay with her
because I don't want to wake up and we're both gone, right,
And I said okay.
Speaker 4: When Erica's life alert necklace was triggered, the healthcare company
Guardian Medical was notified, as was Erica's mom. Without hesitation,
Denise got out of bed, got dressed, and rushed out
to check on her daughter. Before she left, she told
Lonnie to stay behind so that Erica's daughter wouldn't be
left home alone. He agreed, but as time passed and
Denise didn't return, Lonnie grew uneasy. Something felt wrong. He
decided to go to Erica's house himself.
Speaker 11: About fifteen to twenty minutes so, I said, you know,
let me get in the truck in gold and see
what's going on.
Speaker 14: When you first got there, he walked up to the
front door. That's right, okay. Did you go in the house.
Did you knock on the door?
Speaker 9: No?
Speaker 11: I went to reach for the door to open it
and thought it was over right, and she said no, run.
Speaker 14: Did you see your wife?
Speaker 12: Just hear her?
Speaker 11: I just heard her, okay, So you never actually made
it through the threshold, and made it through the threshold.
Speaker 14: Was the door completely closed the entire time you were there.
I didn't get a chance to touch it. I went
to reach for it was closed.
Speaker 9: Yeah, it was closed, Yes, sir, it was closed.
Speaker 14: And basically what you heard was run, Lonnie, Run run.
I told you to run.
Speaker 19: And so now when you when you heard her say that,
I mean, you automatically assumed there was something something wrong.
Speaker 11: So I turn around and I parked the car and
I called nine one one.
Speaker 4: As Lonnie approached Erica's front door, he heard Denise's voice,
but her words were garbled and frantic. He thought she
was telling him to run. Later he would be told
that she was actually screaming for help, but in that moment,
all he heard was the urgency panic. Turned and ran
and called nine one one. By the time police arrived,
the house was in flames.
Speaker 12: They respond to the house, they go around the back.
They see some smoke coming out of the window. They're
able to tell that an air conditioner unit was partially
pushed out the window. They then removed that air conditioning
unit and pull Erica's mom from the window.
Speaker 4: Officers pulled the Nise from the burning home. She was
barely alive, her body battered and soaked in blood. Then
they found Erica.
Speaker 12: They were able to go back in that room or
see in that room that there's another body laying on
the floor. They put that fire out and or partially
put that fire out, and they're able to tell that
Erica is now deceased.
Speaker 8: When she was found, a fire hadn't been set in
the bedroom where she was at. She was burned. She
did have some severe blunt force trauma. We later found
out that she had been stomped on severely on her stomach.
There was a lot of internal bleeding, which is one
of the causes of death, and she had also been strangled.
Speaker 12: The corner testifies that she had elacerated liver, broken ribs,
and evidence that she had been kicked in her stomach
or stomped on, and then she had blunt force to
her head. And then she had the ligature marks and
the ligature was still around her neck when she was
laying on the floor in her room.
Speaker 4: As police moved towards the backyard, something strange caught their attention.
They caught a glimpse of a man who had closed
the back door When.
Speaker 12: They come around the back door to see if there's
anyone else in the house, they're met by a male
trying to come out the door. He then pulls the
door shut on them, and then they have to break
in the door, and they find that mail hiding under
the dining room table with a like a duffel bag
next to him.
Speaker 4: It didn't take long for police to realize what was happening.
The man had been trying to escape, but the police
had arrived too quickly, trapping him inside.
Speaker 1: Well, next guy, I was laying near the boro.
Speaker 8: We got here.
Speaker 1: Oh, I think we got here.
Speaker 21: Too quick because when they got here, they said, look
there's somewhere at dinner you shut the back door.
Speaker 4: Officers forced the door open and entered the smoke filled room.
Lying under the dining room table was a man in
his forties. His name was Lance Hunley.
Speaker 12: Forty six year old Lance Hunley was from Washington, d c.
He was coming and staying in Youngstown. He was brother
to Erica Huff's child's father. So Erica Huff had a
child with Greg Hunley.
Speaker 19: This gentleman Lance, whose name is Lance Hunley. But according
to what you folks and Johnathan we're telling us his
brother is the father of your little grandchild. That's true, Okay,
So there is some connection with this guy. And apparently
from what we're getting, he had nowhere to live, and
your daughter has allowed him to come and live with
her for the last three to four weeks that graduating.
Speaker 14: I noticed on his idea that he had an address
in Warren, Ohio.
Speaker 9: Well, that was where he was staying with his brother.
Speaker 19: Is that where the grandchild's father stays.
Speaker 14: He was staying with him.
Speaker 11: He was staying with him, and he said it was
too many people over there, so he couldn't sleep because
he was working at night, right, And so that's when
he asked, Erica, can I come and stay with you.
Speaker 4: As investigators dug into Hundley's past, they uncovered his connection
to Erica. He was the brother of Erica's daughter's father.
When Hunley first moved to Youngstown, he stayed with his brother,
but that arrangement fell apart. Needing a place to live,
he turned to Erica. She agreed to take him in.
That was a decision that would later cost her everything.
Speaker 9: Now, over the.
Speaker 19: Last three or four weeks, I mean, has there been
anything that Eric has said I mean, was she concerned
about this.
Speaker 9: Guy at all?
Speaker 14: Did she say anything about erratic behavior?
Speaker 11: Said to Denise and I that he was complaining about
the girls that come to clean her up. He said
they're not your friends. He said they got to do their.
Speaker 9: Job, and he complained about that a couple of times.
Speaker 14: But Erica, I mean, in the last three or four weeks,
has not complained about it.
Speaker 11: Almost things she complained about him trying to tell.
Speaker 14: Her what the comfort keepers.
Speaker 9: What the comfort peoples, and that's her job to take
care of them.
Speaker 19: But she never like said anything like I'm afraid of
this guy. He's not hating me, nothing like that. Has
he ever had words with your wife before?
Speaker 14: No, No, not that I know of.
Speaker 12: No.
Speaker 4: Right at first, Hunley wasn't the worst housemate, but he
did have a troubling personality. Erica's in home healthcare workers
later revealed that he was controlling and bossy. They claimed
that when they rejected his unwanted advances, his behavior turned hostile,
and one of them eventually refused to go to Erica's
house if Hunley was there. Erica eventually realized she couldn't
keep him around and planned on asking Lance to leave.
Speaker 8: Hey, listen, we're going to be getting warrants on this
guy at the hospital this morning.
Speaker 7: Okay, okay.
Speaker 1: If he's get being treated or relief, it would be do.
Speaker 8: You know, I don't know he's being there, he's under observation.
Speaker 1: I don't think that personally.
Speaker 15: I don't think there's anything wrong with him.
Speaker 1: Gammon, Yeah, okay.
Speaker 4: After being pulled from the burning home, Hunley was taken
to the hospital for smoking elation, but as soon as
doctors cleared him, he was escorted straight to the Youngstown
police station for questioning.
Speaker 22: Okay, I am detective stars at wrong roadway and your name,
sir is Lance l A n Cezar. Yes, Lance, could
get take a few minutes and leave that alone and
talk with her.
Speaker 14: Sure, multi tell well or we don't want you to multitask,
We don't want to talk to you and pay attention.
Then you can look at that all you want. Sir.
Speaker 4: Funny knew he was in trouble when detectives began the interview.
He feigned distraction, pretending to be preoccupied with his hospital paperwork.
There was an obvious attempt to downplay the gravity of
a situation. Perhaps he thought acting indifferent would convince them
he wasn't capable of brutally murdering a disabled woman. It
didn't work.
Speaker 14: Would you like to speak with us or about this incident? Yeah?
Why am I here? Okay? Well, we're going to explain
that to you. Okay, We're gonna explain everything to you. Lance.
Speaker 13: Where do you live, sir? Well, right now, I was
staying at urga house house huff.
Speaker 14: You were staying there? Yes? And how long are you
staying this? Sir? Beautiful? Buttom off, how do you know Erica?
How did you come to live there?
Speaker 13: Her daughter is my niece. My brother and her head
a relationship.
Speaker 14: I know you've been living there around a month. But
how long have you known Erica? Have you known it
for years? My niece would be six. I've been knowing
her about eight eight o. My brother, I don't know,
maybe eight years.
Speaker 18: Eight years?
Speaker 14: Your Mary, do you have a pretty good relationship with her?
Speaker 15: Of course?
Speaker 14: Okay.
Speaker 4: Detectives started gathering background details, then they cut to the
chase the events leading up to Erica's death.
Speaker 14: Were you at home at forty four Cleveland last evening?
Excuse me? Were you home at forty four Cleveland last evening?
At Thursday evening Thursday evening, I was in and out.
Speaker 19: Okay, but at some time did you come home for
the night, like to go to bed and that kind
of stuff.
Speaker 14: Oh yeah, let's let's just speed it up.
Speaker 13: Man.
Speaker 14: When I got home? What time did you get home
last night?
Speaker 13: What happened?
Speaker 9: Yes?
Speaker 14: I got home.
Speaker 23: I don't know.
Speaker 14: I left the bar? What bar?
Speaker 15: So seven time?
Speaker 14: So you went from the seven tavern to home? That's
right right up the street. Okay? Do you remember about
what time that might have been closing time? Or didn't
look at my why he's doing the slightest idea.
Speaker 4: Fuddally claimed that he'd spent the night drinking at a
bar before coming home. Beyond that, he refused to say
much of anything else.
Speaker 14: When you got home, you have your own bedroom, there
is that?
Speaker 9: Correct?
Speaker 14: That's correct? Okay, Erica has her own bedroom. That's correct.
Speaker 9: When you got home?
Speaker 14: Was Erica awake asleep?
Speaker 13: Do you never comes here? It gives triggy. Okay, now
my question to you, and I'm gonna arrest at this time? Yes, okay, okay,
I think this and I'm I kind of figured out
something from the police office.
Speaker 14: Eric had died. Yes, I think I need to get
a lawyer. I think I need to stop question.
Speaker 4: Realizing he was cornered, Humley shut down the interview. He
asked for a lawyer, but before the interview ended, he
made one bold, desperate claim.
Speaker 13: But I will tell you this, I wasn't the only
one in that house. Else was in the house. I
don't know the person who choked me out. You just
told us you didn't want to talk to us.
Speaker 14: It that's it.
Speaker 24: And he talked to us, y'all do y'all job. I
just but you understand you either talk to us or don't.
You don't want to speak right, I'm I'm arrested for murder. Apparently,
yes you are, so I need yeah.
Speaker 14: Okay, well let's see Saul communications this point though. Okay,
I just wanted this. You know there was another person
in the house.
Speaker 4: This claim would become the foundation of Hunley's defense. He
insisted he wasn't the killer. Someone else, he said, had
murdered Erica and nearly beaten Denise to death, but the
detectives weren't buying it, and thanks to Denise's survival, they
didn't have to lance.
Speaker 8: Hunley had been at a south Side bar. According to him,
we did go and interview people at the bar. But
Lance Hunley had returned to the residence on Cleveland Street,
and it appears that Lance Hunley had strangled Erica, had
taken her, had thrown her out of bed, beat her
and stomped her with his feet, I mean kicked her
so badly she had internal bleeding inside her stomach. Lynn
had gone to the garage and got a gas can
spread gasoline around the bedroom. During this time, Bennise Johnston
had got the report of the life alert had come
to the house. When she entered the house, she observed
Lance Hunley standing there with a gas can. Asked him
what he was doing with the gas can. She took
the gas can from Hunley took it out to the garage.
When she entered back into the kitchen area from the garage,
Hunley attacked her with a claw hammer and hit her
numerous times in the head. Told Denise he had killed
he had killed her daughter, and was going to kill her.
Actually produced a knife at this time and put it
to her throat. Drug Denise into the bedroom and threw
her down on top of her daughter, who was smoldering
from the from the fire.
Speaker 4: Lance Hunley had savagely beaten Eric a Huff, murdering her
in cold blood. When Denise arrived to check on her daughter,
he turned on her as well, intending to finish her off,
but before he could, Lonnie showed up, forcing Hunley to scramble.
Then came the police. Lance's attempt to set the house
on fire and erase the evidence had failed, so the
police arrived.
Speaker 8: Before Henley could make it out of the house. So
Hunley determined he cleaned up, put some clothing in a
bay of the clothing with blood on it, and he
laid down in the dining room, and when officers arrive,
he acted like he was a victim of his crime.
Speaker 4: Detective Ron Roadway didn't have to speculate because Denise Johnson survived.
Though she was critically injured, she lived to tell him
exactly what happened that morning.
Speaker 8: Denise Johnson did survive the attack. She had been hit
numerous times in the head with a hammer. Believe her
injuries included a fracture's skull severe lacerations. I mean, when I.
Speaker 25: Saw her at the hospital, she looked horrific, but by
the next day, I mean she was quite a strong woman,
and I mean was able to come back putty quickly
from the injuries and was very very helpful in the
outcome of this case.
Speaker 4: Later, Denise would give an official recorded statement, and nearly
three years after the attack, she would stand in front
of a jury base her daughter's killer and tell them
the truth. In the end, the jury had to make
a decision not about guilt, but about whether or not
Lance Hunley deserve to die. In twenty eighteen, prosecutors in Youngstown, Ohio,
were preparing for a murder trial a lot of that
going around in Ohio. Their target was forty eight year
old Lance Hunley. He was accused of savagely beating forty
one year old Erica Huff to death and nearly doing
the same to her mother, sixty eight year old Denise Johnson.
Given the brutality and the heinous nature of the crimes,
prosecutors had made their decision. This wasn't just a murder case.
This was a death penalty case.
Speaker 12: When you have the defendant or the suspect at the
scene with a double bag full of his bloody clothes
and he killed and attempted to kill two or more persons,
this is one of those cases where we knew the
death penalty specification might be on the table.
Speaker 4: Of course, before the trial could begin, Hunley needed a
lawyer and he needed a defense. Neither would come easily.
Speaker 26: Hunley initially claimed he was insane at the time, only
to later change his mind. He fired his first set
of lawyers after they pressed to have his competency evaluated.
In July of last year, after his new attorneys asked
that he be tested again.
Speaker 15: The issue has to be resolved, cannot be abandoned.
Speaker 26: I think we all know that I am having some
trouble convincing mister Hunley. If such, Hunley became so angry
in court he had to be restrained.
Speaker 4: As the trial approached, Hunley made things as difficult as possible.
He was combative, disruptive, and openly hostile towards the court.
He had no interest in working with the public defenders
assigned to his case.
Speaker 27: Until you can submit to a competency examine, evenish, until
you submit to a competency examination, that that right didn't.
Speaker 28: And you're the extra set of company of that which
I don't.
Speaker 14: I never wanted to fush.
Speaker 1: I understand that, and trying to me.
Speaker 14: You are trying to make new things that I don't
want it. If you want to do it or not,
you're order.
Speaker 28: I do now still in you.
Speaker 4: After a second competency hearing, the court granted Hunley permission
to change his insanity defense. Why do they always think
you're crazy when you're actually stupid?
Speaker 14: Beats me?
Speaker 4: But there was still the issue of him refusing to
accept any of the attorneys provided.
Speaker 26: To him this morning. After firing his second set of lawyers.
Hunley insisted he could not work with anyone who was local.
Speaker 13: But I simply asked you put out an exsurnance from
Auti town, and you told me not.
Speaker 26: But the judge said she'd changed her mind and would
find Hunley a public defender from out of the area.
That seemed to satisfy him. However, less than five minutes later,
they were all back again, with the defendant asking how
long it would take to find new lawyers. The judge
couldn't give him an answer.
Speaker 14: I'll show you.
Speaker 26: And even when the judge asked him a series of
questions to see if Hundley knew what he was doing,
he was insistent, figure.
Speaker 14: That I'll figure that. I am absolutely positive.
Speaker 4: In the end, Hunley made a drastic decision to represent himself.
The court begrudgingly allowed it, appointing stand by counsel to
assist if needed. With that settled, jury selection began and
soon the trial was under way. Prosecutors went to work
laying out their case.
Speaker 12: We used the ambulance drivers to talk about who waved
them off when they came to the door, and it
was him, obviously who waved them off. We used the
coroner's testimony about what Erica's causes a manner of death was.
We used the police to talk about their investigation and
all the different evidence that they collected. We had DNA
experts to talk about not only where Erica's DNA would
have been, but also where Denise's blood was and where
Lance Hunley's DNA was left. And we have the detective
kind of round up all the testimony at the end
to kind of clean up and make all those connections
as to why we think.
Speaker 28: Humley did this in the first place.
Speaker 4: The forensic and physical evidence against Hunley was overwhelming, but
the prosecution had something even more powerful. And I witnessed
one of Hunley's victims had survived. Erica's mom was alive
to tell the story.
Speaker 22: And Denise I was actually here Friday morning when you
were in the emergency room, and.
Speaker 29: I think you remember talking to me a little bit.
You were actually in very bad shape when I talked
to you. The doctors were just finishing stitching up at
least six lacerations in your head and your forehead, but
you were still conscious and you were able to talk
to me, and you basically told me what had happened
that day.
Speaker 15: And the reason we're here now is we want to
memorialize everything. We put everything, especially in a homicide case.
We do it on GVD TAP.
Speaker 4: Three years before Lance Hunley's trial began, Denise Johnson sat
in a hospital bed, battered but alive. It was twenty fifteen,
just a few days after the nightmare that had unfolded
in Erica's home. Denise was recovering from the brutal attack
that had left her daughter dead. Despite the trauma, she
spoke to Detective Ron Roadway in a recorded interview.
Speaker 15: So I'm going to take you back to early Friday morning.
Speaker 19: Now, I know the medical alert went off sometime a
few minutes after two o'clock in the morning on Friday.
Speaker 15: The sixth Rural Metro Ambulance was dispatched there. They were
called and you also recalled it.
Speaker 19: You were a contacts and when you arrived, correct me
if I'm wrong.
Speaker 15: You told me you actually have a key to the
house and you went in.
Speaker 30: Yes, when I opened the door, he was in the
living room, and you say he, and I said, the
life Alert people with the lifeline people called me, and
I said, where's Eric.
Speaker 28: He said, she's sleeping, but the room smelled full of gas.
I said, why is this gasolene? Can even know the
red container here in the living room. I don't know
what his.
Speaker 2: Answer was that because I feistily said, gasoline belongs in
the garage with the lawnmower. So I walked the gasolene
camp out to the garage, put it next to the lawnmower,
and come back in to go to get ready to
check on Erica.
Speaker 4: Deni's had no idea what she was walking into that morning.
Erica was already dead, her life stolen in a horrific
act of violence, and within moments of stepping into the house,
and He's found herself face to face with her daughter's killer.
Speaker 2: He came over in the corner with the hammer and
just started beating me unmercifully, just beating me and beating me.
Speaker 28: And he said, why did you come? I said, first.
Speaker 2: Alert told me to come, and I you know, and
the blood was gushing so and he said, you need
to make peace with the Lord. You need to make peace.
I said, I have he and the blood was just gushing,
and I said, Lance, why are you doing this? He said,
all of you have just ditched me and I've got
to kill you. And then he's beating and beating. But
I heard Lonnie's truck come. I heard Lonie's truck come,
but he was so busy crashing the hammer I did
he didn't.
Speaker 28: He didn't hear the truck.
Speaker 4: At sixty eight years old, Denise fought back with everything
she had, but she was up against a man consumed
by rage. Then through the chaos, she heard something, a
familiar sound. It was her husband's truck pulling up outside.
Speaker 14: Your truck?
Speaker 11: Is it gonna allowed Exhaustris, Yes, she's got phlegmatics on it.
Speaker 9: It makes a little noise, so.
Speaker 14: Like rumble rumble.
Speaker 9: Oh yeah.
Speaker 17: So In other words, okay, if she was inside the house,
it would not be uncommon or and reasonable for her
to hear.
Speaker 14: The air truck pull up with the loud motor.
Speaker 15: Yes, and that would be distinctive and she would know
that you.
Speaker 12: Yeah.
Speaker 9: Matter of fact, when I went to the door, she
hollowed Lonnie run and run.
Speaker 4: Desperate, Denise screamed for help, but Lonnie misheard her. Instead
of help Lonnie help, he thought she was shouting at
him to run. That misunderstanding may have saved his life.
If Frannie had charged into the house instead of running
for help. There was no telling how much worse this
could have been. Only may have killed them both. Of course,
the terrible downside of that misunderstanding was that Denise was
left alone in the house with Hunley, but.
Speaker 28: He continued to beat me and scene forever.
Speaker 2: And then he pulled out a switch blade after he
broke the hammer my.
Speaker 14: Head when he pulled it.
Speaker 15: You saw him pull the switchblade out. I know it
was a very heck. Did you feel him stab you? No,
because you know you have a stab wound under here.
Speaker 8: Yeah?
Speaker 9: Just he did stab you?
Speaker 28: I think he did.
Speaker 15: Yes, Yeah, we saw an emergency. There was a puncture woe.
Speaker 2: That okay, And then he started to joke me and
dragged me into the living woman. I fought and I
fought and not finally coulding fighting, and he took my breath.
Speaker 4: Hunley strangled Denise until she lost consciousness. Then, as if
disposing of garbage, he dragged her lifeless body into Erica's
bedroom and tossed her on top of her daughter's corpse.
After dousing the room in gasoline, he struck a match
and watched the fire begin to consume the evidence of
his crimes. But then something unexpected happened. Denise started to
wake up.
Speaker 28: I realized I felt flames, so I started patting it out.
Speaker 2: Then he came with some alcohol and threw it in
my face, and then he walked away, and I went
to the window and I started pulling the side of
the ark, and I did pat my daughter. Yes, I said,
she's still warm, maybe she's still alive, right, you know.
And I said we've got to get out of here.
And and then I thought my jacket burning, so I
took it.
Speaker 28: Off at the wood Dale.
Speaker 2: But then I reached for the window with the air
conditioning thing he was and as I'm pulling the sides out,
the police apparently were pulling heard.
Speaker 28: Yes, they said, Mayam, he gotta.
Speaker 30: I said, I'm ready to come just take me, and
they pulled me through the window.
Speaker 4: By the time police pulled Denise from the burning house,
she was barely clinging to life, bloodied and gasping for air.
She used what little strength she had to plead with
them to save Erica. But deep down she already knew
the truth. Her daughter was gone, I said, but my
daughter had said here because I wasn't sure.
Speaker 28: I kind of knew that my heart she was.
Speaker 4: Despite the trauma, Denise's account of what happened on that
horrible morning never changed. Three years later, in front of
a courtroom packed with jurors, attorneys, and the man who
had nearly killed her, she repeated the same truth she
had given detectives. She told them exactly what Lance Humley
had done.
Speaker 26: Today they had the mother of murder victim, Erica, on
the witness stand. When she returned, she says, Hundley began
beating her about the head with a hammer. She asked
him why he was doing that, he said. She claimed
in front of the courtroom that Hunley admitted killing her daughter.
Speaker 7: And was going to kill her too.
Speaker 4: After laying out the physical evidence and presenting Denise's unshakable testimony,
the prosecution rested their case, the time had come for
Hunley to explain himself and present a defense.
Speaker 26: Hunley told the jury he came to the area in
August twenty fifteen and had been staying at Erica Huff's
house on the South Side, paying her two hundred dollars
a month. On the night of November fifth, he'd gone
to a couple bars, came back and smoked some marijuana
with Erica and fell asleep watching TV.
Speaker 15: I'm on the couch.
Speaker 24: I couldn't see they face, okay, and there was choking
me out from behind.
Speaker 26: A Hundley says the attacker used chloroform on him and
he blacked out.
Speaker 15: Coming to in the kitchen, I started to war towards
the back. That's when I seen a guy come out
of HER's room.
Speaker 14: And if the gas came in.
Speaker 26: Now groggy and frightened, Hundley claims he sees the victim
lying on the floor of her bedroom.
Speaker 10: And I.
Speaker 15: Chucked her an.
Speaker 14: I didn't feel the pause.
Speaker 4: And they took the witness stand and launched into a
bizarre theatrical performance. According to him, a masked intruder had
attacked him and knocked him unconscious with chloroform. When he
came to, he claimed Erica was already dead.
Speaker 14: She told lads, it's not too late.
Speaker 15: We can come up with something to tell the police.
Speaker 26: Hundley says he then started hitting the elderly woman with
a hammer, telling prosecutors during cross examination he was scared.
Speaker 14: I was offended. I was defending myself.
Speaker 1: Oh yes.
Speaker 26: Prosecutors pressed him, asking why, with the house filling with smoke,
he didn't try to escape. Hundley kept saying he didn't.
Speaker 10: Know what to do.
Speaker 15: I'm hunding the influence of chloroflum.
Speaker 26: Although Hunley was rescued from the burning house, he says
he never told anyone but his lawyer's this story for
nearly three years, consisting today. He never killed Erica Huff.
Speaker 4: In a move as desperate as it was disgusting, Hunley
pointed the finger at Denise Johnson. He insinuated that she
was somehow involved in her own daughter's murder, and that
in a moment of panic, he had attacked her with
a hammer. The story was ridiculous and coherent. Den it
made no sense whatsoever.
Speaker 23: Humbley, claiming this morning he was defending himself that he
saw Denise Johnson carrying a gas can coming into the house,
didn't know what was going on, and he grabbed a
hammer and started hitting her with it, claiming to be
defending himself.
Speaker 26: But this morning, during closing arguments, prosecutors told jurors Humbley
concocted the story, hoping to create doubt.
Speaker 31: He beat her, He stomped on her, and then he
strangled her. He then had to get rid of the
only witness who came to the house, Denise Johnson.
Speaker 4: Hunley's defense was weak and almost laughable, and after closing arguments,
the jury had their say.
Speaker 26: After just three and a half hours of deliberation, jurders
returned their verdicts shortly after two this afternoon.
Speaker 2: We the jury find the dependent Lands Hunley guilty of
aggravated murder and.
Speaker 28: Violation of a hire us.
Speaker 26: Humley sat motionless and quiet as the verdicts were read aloud,
guilty in the premeditated death of Erica Huff, the attempted
murderer of the victim's mother, and aggravated arson for setting
fire to the crime scene.
Speaker 4: The verdict surprised no one, except maybe for Hunley, guilty
on all counts, but the jury had one more decision
to make. Would Lance get to live in the cozy
little jail cell or would he pay the ultimate price
for his crimes.
Speaker 26: Just last week, a Mahoning County jury determined that a
man from Youngstown should die for his crimes. This morning,
Judge Moore and Sweeney determined Lance Hunley offered absolutely nothing
during his trials to offset that. This morning, she upheld
the jury's decision that he should die for the murder
of Erica Huff back in November of twenty fifteen, as
well as the attempted murder of Huff's mother than East Johnson.
Speaker 4: Naturally, Hunley appealed the conviction and the death sentence. In
a unanimous decision, the Ohio Supreme Court upheld both. As
of April twenty twenty five, Lance Hunley sits on death
row in Ross County, Ohio. Of course, in today's world
and in the state of Ohio, no execution date has
been set, because haven't you heard suicidal empathies all the
rage these days? Despite the overwhelming evidence against him, only
has never once admitted to what he did. He probably
never will, He's maintained, is in a sense, leaving the
question of why unanswered I.
Speaker 12: Think Lance committed this crime because Erica was pressuring him
to leave and wanted him to leave, and he had
nowhere else to go. I don't know what was going
on in his head that he felt he couldn't go
back to Washington, d C. Where he was from. But
apparently in his mind he was backed into a corner
and this is the only way out.
Speaker 8: What exactly triggered him, we don't know. You know, he
would not confess to this crime, but you know, we
believe he was upset that she was asking to move
out of the house.
Speaker 7: Else.
Speaker 8: You know, with my experience and what I felt on
this case, he was the social path that he was.
He just you know, snapped and started, you know, strangling
her and beating her. No reason whatsoever they do what
he did to such a severely handicapped woman.
Speaker 4: Prosecutors and detectives have their theories about Hunley's motive. They
believe that Lance had been struggling financially, and when Erica
told him that he had to move out, something inside
of him snapped. Ironically, if anyone had a right to
feel beaten down by life, it was Erica. Multiple sclerosis
had stolen her ability to walk, her independence and even
her ability to care for her own daughter. But she
never once let that turn her into a monster, not
like Hunley, who, on the other hand, let his bitterness
fester into something deadly. That's what entitlement does to people.
They think they're owed by the world, and when they
don't get what they want want, he decided to just
go ahead and take it anyway. After the attack, Erica's
mother shared her own theory when that dug even deeper
into what might have driven Hunley to kill.
Speaker 2: Because we were not his friends. We were everything I
think he wanted and didn't have. And then here I
go a week before getting a b of and he says, well,
why didn't you get a Mercedes? I got what I wanted,
you want and what I've worked.
Speaker 15: For, And your husband worked all his life exactly.
Speaker 8: Both your children are well educated college graduates working in.
Speaker 28: Their lives, and we did we wanted.
Speaker 2: Well, I'm getting want in this spring. I said, well,
you do what you want to do, you know, But
he was I could see the resentment.
Speaker 7: In his eyes.
Speaker 2: He hated us. We were everything in life that he
may have wanted and didn't.
Speaker 4: It seems that a toxic mix of jealousy, resentment, alcohol,
and eviction pushed Hunley over the edge. He brutally beat
a disabled woman to death and then turned his fury
on a sixty eight year old mother, nearly killing her
as well. Through it all, Hunley never stopped to consider
one simple fact. Erica was one of the only people
in this world that had ever shown him kindness. She'd
given him a home when he needed one. She didn't
have to, but she did, and that kindness was repaid
with disgusting, brutal violence.
Speaker 15: I mean, the goodness of her their daughter allowed him
to come there.
Speaker 19: Yes, and he's been living there for about a month, right,
and he even had his own bedroom there.
Speaker 8: She was, I'm saying, think he just prayed upon her.
You know, I need somewhere to live. I'm your I'm
your daughter's uncle. You know, just preyed upon her vulnerability.
And you know, probably she was probably a nice, sweet person,
you know, felt felt bad.
Speaker 14: For the guy.
Speaker 4: But like many of us, Erica Huff believed in kindness.
She thought helping someone in need was the right thing
to do. It's what all those PBS specials tried to
teach us. Remember, But when she opened her door to
a monster named Lance Hundley. She unknowingly let evil inside
her home, inside her life, and then it took her life,
nearly silencing her mother as well in a brutal attempt
to erase the truth. But Denise survived. She fought through
unbearable pain to tell her daughter's story, to ensure that
Hunley would never harm another person again, and perhaps to
teach all of us a very important lesson. In the end,
her voice put him exactly where he belonged on death row.
Erica's murder is a chilling reminder that evil doesn't always
announce itself. Sometimes it wears the face of someone you trust,
and sometimes the kindest hearts pay the highest price. Are
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Speaker 1: Stay safe,