Episode 321

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