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