Sword and Scale contains adult themes and violence, and is not intended for all audiences.

Listener discretion is advised.

He came over in the corner with a hammer and just started beating me, unmercifully, just beating me and beating me, and the blood was discussing.

He said, all of you have just stitched.

Me, and I've got to kill you.

You've likely heard the phrase kindness is its own reward.

This is a belief many of us have.

They good deeds might bring a little good karma, and then helping someone in need is just the right thing to do.

Most of the time that belief proves true, but not always.

Sometimes kindness is twisted into something dark and ruthless.

A simple favorite can spiral into a choice that should never have been made.

There's another saying, one that speaks to the crueler side of fate.

No good deed goes unpunished, and in the rarest most brutal cases, an act of generosity doesn't only lead to regret.

It leads to suffering.

It leads to bloodshed, it leads to death.

This is Guardian Medical.

Do you dispatch for medical police or is it an different number?

Okay, we have a medical alert for client at forty four Cleveland Street.

At around two am on November sixth, twenty fifteen, in Youngstown, Ohio, nine to one one Dispatch received a call from the healthcare provider, Guardian Medical.

They requested that an ambulance be said to the home of one of their clients.

Okay, what's going on there?

We had the medical alert to go off and we did not be seeper response over the phone or over the two way And can you tell me about the patient here or honestly I'm showing is that she has MS and cannot walk and the age they have bound is forty one.

What's her name, Erica Huff.

After this call came in, an ambulance was quickly dispatched to the home of forty one year old Erica Huff.

Guardian Medical call, They want you to go to forty four Cleveland Street.

The alarm went off there.

And they didn't say what was wrong, right, No, they didn't make any contact with her.

It's a forty one year old female, Erica Huff.

She has MS and cannot walk.

Yeah, I think we've been there before.

Forty four Cleveland right.

Good.

More than thank you.

This wasn't the first time emergency services had been called to Erica's house, and on the surface, it seemed like just another routine call.

But in less than two hours, that assumption would be shattered.

What started as a simple ambulance dispatch spiraled into chaos.

Three ambulances, two fire trucks, and several police officers would descend on Erica's home.

Among the many people who arrived was a homicide detective.

My name is Ron Roadway, my official title.

In twenty fifteen, I was detective sergeant with the Youngstown Police Department, assigned to the homicide bureau.

Erica Huff was a forty one year old who resided on the south side of Youngstown.

She had a severe handicap and health issues.

She had multiple carosis ms, she was bedridden.

She didn't live by herself, but she had health aids with her.

Her mother was pretty active in her life, helping her out.

Erica Huff relied on a wheelchair to get around and needed daily assistance with even the most basic tasks like bathing, preparing meals, and doing laundry, things most of us take for granted.

Living with multiple sclerosis is no walk in the park.

The disease, which attacks the brain and spinal cord, can cause extreme fatigue, muscle weakness, severe pain, and a host of other debilitating symptoms.

Fortunately, Erica had a loving mother and stepfather who cared for as well as in home caregivers from the company comfort Keepers who checked on her regularly.

Perhaps the hardest part for Erica wasn't her own suffering, It was the fact she couldn't care for her five year old daughter.

Her illness made motherhood an uphill battle, forcing her to rely on her mom and stepdad to raise the little girl.

No matter how much she loved her child.

Multiple sclerosis had stolen the simple joys of being a hands on parent.

But despite all these challenges, Erica did her best to push through each day.

Then, on November sixth, twenty fifteen, her already challenging life turned into a nightmare.

On November sixth, twenty fifteen, the first call I Believe went out around two o'clock in the morning two o'clock am.

It was a medical alert from the home of Erica Huff on Cleveland Street.

EMTs and an ambulance responded to.

The home that morning.

Erica's life Alert necklace was activated triggering an ambulance dispatch.

For the next hour or so, all was quiet.

The responding paramedics never requested assistance or called in an update.

Then, at around two forty five am, nine to one one received a second call, this time from a man named Lonnie Johnson Town One.

Yeah, this is Lonnie, forty four Cleveland.

My wife come over because of my daughter.

Her daughter's along with a house, and so she came over here to see what's going on.

And then it was taking so long.

Each time I called, nobody answered.

So I came over here and she hollered, run run, and she screamed aloud, and I'm not gonna set the door, but the lights are off.

Now.

I don't know what's going on in that house.

I don't want to go in there.

And some that and happened.

I need to cop to come to forty four Cleveland Street in Youngstown, Ohio.

Okay, are you still there?

Though?

Yeah, I'm I'm I'm about maybe a two or three colleagues away from that house.

Because Ronnie Johnson Jr.

She screamed and told me.

To run run Lonnie, run, And.

I went to go to the door and I turned around and called come back and call you guys cause something and then the light everything is off in that house.

The light's off.

I don't know what's going on.

I need some help.

Okay, Wellsten, tomw okay, ca very please.

Following Lonnie's call, police were sent to Erica's house, but their arrival wasn't as fast as Lonnie had hoped.

Yankstown nine on one.

Yeah, I just called out long ago and asked him for a police to come the forty fourth Cleveland Street.

They're on their way.

Okay, oh wow, okay, okay bye.

Growing impatient, Lonnie called nine one one a second time.

Meanwhile, dispatchers were struggling to understand why police were being sent to the same address where an ambulance had already been dispatched.

Why hadn't they heard anything from the paramedics on scene.

Did you transport the lady from forty four Cleveland or Cleveland?

Oh that was the medical warm Yeah.

No, it was false alarm.

Oh okay, it was a false alarm.

Once we finally go out there, it was false.

They didn't take her nowhere.

Strangely, the ambulance paramedics reported the initial call as a false alarm, but when police showed up about an hour later.

It was immediately obvious that something was terribly wrong.

Smoke was pouring out of Erica's windows.

Her house was on fire.

Officers quickly requested fire trucks and more ambulances.

I think we need you back at forty four Cleveland.

Okay, what's going on there?

Okay?

I sent you guys there before for an alarm, and now the police were called there.

Some guy called the police there and they're saying there's a deceased female.

Oh, I don't know.

They got the fire department on the way there now and to gain entry to get into then too ambulances.

I don't know what's going on, and I think for two yes.

Not long after arriving on scene, the responding police officers made a chilling discovery.

They found a dead body.

I still don't know.

He was saying there was a dead body there, didn't I asked for the fire department, and then I asked for another ambulance.

Yeah.

Now markets got unseen and said that there's an occupied structure fire there.

We only sent one truck.

We didn't call for no.

Yeah, now they're calling for another a go on.

Now they're requesting ladder truck and battalion too.

So I'm not sure exactly what's going on.

I just wanted to give you a headtipths Inspire Department is involved and there's a dead body there.

As more cops, firefighters, and paramedics arrived, dispatchers scrambled to gather information, trying to make sense of the chaos, but one detail stood out.

The original emergency call had been dismissed as a false alarm.

But why what had actually happened with the first ambulance?

What do they have going on there?

Okay, they got a medical alarm.

They fed at fifty five to fifty five, got there, said it was a false alarm, goes they're not something door, somebody says run, he calls unknown trouble.

They get there and say they have a dead female.

They have a dead female there, apparently that's what they officer said when they got there.

Okay, that's all they know that a dead femail enough.

How did you guys determine that it was a false alarm on Cleveland Street?

They actually, our courage just told us that a thirty something or so.

Your old male he answered the door and said everything's fine.

It was a false alarm.

Thirty something ish year olds he may have thirty something year old male right.

Answered the door and said everything was okay.

It was a false Yeah.

It turned out that when paramedics reached Erica's home, a man waved them off, insisting there was no emergency.

Without verifying anything, the paramedics left, never checking on Erica, never stepping inside her house.

That decision would prove to be disastrous.

Eventually, Detective Ron Roadway arrived on the scene and spoke with the responding officers.

It began trying to make sense of the mayhem.

Officers were dispatched to the Cleveland Street residents.

When they arrived, they of course were going to run the primitive house.

They heard and then noticed that the air conditioning y'ared out of one of the bedrooms was being pushed out.

We got there.

It was weird.

You hear the alarm going off, and we go to the back and then Thowe was trying to push out the air conditioner in the back.

Uh huh.

And we opened the.

Window and ripped the air conditioner out, pulled this woman out and she was bloody head to toe, and then the other woman within their dead.

And that's when they made entry into the house and discovered two victims in the house.

As officers approached the back of the burning home, they spotted movement.

A person was trying to escape the house by pushing an air conditioner out of a window.

Police rushed to assist, pulling a bloody woman from the bedroom window.

She'd been beaten nearly to death.

Inside that same room, lying on the floor and surrounded by flames, was another woman.

She was dead, her body was battered, her skin singed by the growing fire.

The police pushed into the house through the back door.

In the dining room, they found yet another person, a man collapsed under a table, seemingly unconscious.

Our guys went there for unknown trouble.

Founded deceased female, fears to be beaten to death.

Found another female beat almost to deaf.

Found a male almost almost dead.

They not really sure what happened with him.

And their house was on fire.

Somebody set the house on fire trying to.

Cover it up.

No shit, Yeah though, fd's trying to put the fire out without disturbing the crime.

Scene too much.

But we got at least one dead right now and.

Two that are circling the drain.

In total, three people were pulled from Erica's burning home, two women and a man.

One of them had already lost their life, and the two others were rushed to a nearby hospital.

As firefighters worked to put out the fire, Detective Ron Roadway prepared for what he knew would be a long, grueling investigation.

By the time the case was closed, multiple charges had been filed, including murder and attempted murder, and in the end, thanks to the relentless efforts of investigators, a violent and ruthless killer would face the ultimate punishment.

On the morning of November sixth, twenty fifteen, an ambulance was dispatched to the home of forty one year old Erica Huff, who suffered from multiple sclerosis, but when the paramedics arrived, a man outside the house waved them off, insisting there was no emergency and that Erica was fine.

They left without ever stepping inside.

Okay, Originally, at two o'clock we got a call from the medical alarm people.

Guardian Medical said that there was an.

Alarm and they didn't have any contact with the person that living at that house, so I had to send an ambulance.

There was a medical alarm.

The ambulance responded and they cleared it.

Some guy answered the door when they got there and said that it was a false alarm.

Everything was okay and send them away, and then all hell broke loose.

Shortly after paramedics drove away, a chilling nine to one one call came in.

This time it wasn't a request for an ambulance, it was a call for police.

And then almost an hour later I looked up in the addresses on the screen again, this guy named Ronnie call and he said that he got to the door somebody yelled run.

The house was dark and he didn't know what was going on.

So that's when she put in unknown trouble.

Officers responded to the call, unsure of what they were walking into.

When they arrived, they found part of the house was on fire.

Before the flames spread, they managed to pull two women from the home.

Both had been savagely beaten, their bodies drenched in blood.

One of them was dead and the other was barely clinging to life.

Eventually, a Youngstown, oh Ohio prosecutor joined the investigation, and the deceased woman's identity was confirmed.

It was Erica Huff.

My name is Don Candello Mesa.

In twenty fifteen, I was the chief trial Counsel for the Mahoning County Prosecutor's Office.

In twenty fifteen, Erica Huff was forty one years old.

She was a mother, a sister, a daughter, as she lived in Youngstown, Ohio.

She had debilitating MS and she was in a wheelchair at that point.

She hadn't always been in a wheelchair, but at that point she was, and she had some home health care aids that would come and help her get ready for bed and cook and do other things around the house.

She had a five year old daughter who stayed with her parents, also in Youngstown, and she would visit often with her daughter, but she needed care to help her do everything from day to day.

The woman who had survived the brutal attack was Erica's mom, sixty eight year old Denise Johnson.

She had been beaten nearly to death before the fire broke out.

Denise Johnson was Erica Huff's mother.

She was retired, I believe at the time, but she had taken on a lot.

So when Erica went to a wheelchair and had to sort of give up custody of her child to her parents, Denise had retired and she was with Erica's stepfather at the time, Lonnie Johnson, and they lived in Youngstown and took care of Denise's daughter.

Erica's five year old daughter depended on her grandmother Denise and her stepgrandfather, Lonnie Johnson for care Erica's illness made it impossible to raise the little girl alone, and her parents took on the role of primary caregivers while also assisting Erica with her daily needs.

They were devoted, loving people, but on that horrific morning, tragedy struck.

Erica was found dead in her bedroom, beaten so severely that she never stood a chance, and as if that wasn't enough, the killer had set the house on fire to cover up the crime.

With Denise barely alive and rushed to the hospital, police turned to the only person left the question, Erica's stepfather, Lonnie Johnson, at seventy six years old.

He was brought to the station for an interview with the homicide detective Ron Roadway.

From what we understand, your wife's daughter, your stepdaughter.

Her name is Erica huff Aza Gras and she lives at forty four Cleveland Street.

She suffered from MS Is that correct?

Yeah, she has okay, pretty bad.

Advanced her some wheelchair to the bulls to the wheelchair okay, and she can't walk.

She had people coming even clean her up, and she can't even walk.

No, she can't take a step.

And I believe comfort Keepers is one of the companies that comes in and takes.

Care of her.

Detectives started with routine background questions before shifting to what really mattered.

The morning of the attack.

Annie explained that he'd been asleep at home when it all began.

And it's my understanding somewhere shortly around two o'clock this morning, your stepdaughter wears a medical alert, and that medical alert went off.

Rural Metro Ambulance Company was notified, and your wife was notified.

Is that correct.

I'm assuming you folks were sleeping when you got the call.

Oh yeah, okay.

And then your wife gathered herself together and went over to the house.

Yes, she said, on the wool and turned that alarm off.

Now doesn't go awful lot?

Is that something what happened every now and then?

But she went over the forty and pushed a button, you know, took care of it, right.

But she said that you stay home with the granddaughter, Erica's daughter and stays with us ninety five percent of the time, right, And she said, you stay with her because I don't want to wake up and we're both gone, right, And I said okay.

When Erica's life alert necklace was triggered, the healthcare company Guardian Medical was notified, as was Erica's mom.

Without hesitation, Denise got out of bed, got dressed, and rushed out to check on her daughter.

Before she left, she told Lonnie to stay behind so that Erica's daughter wouldn't be left home alone.

He agreed, but as time passed and Denise didn't return, Lonnie grew uneasy.

Something felt wrong.

He decided to go to Erica's house himself.

About fifteen to twenty minutes so, I said, you know, let me get in the truck in gold and see what's going on.

When you first got there, he walked up to the front door.

That's right, okay.

Did you go in the house.

Did you knock on the door?

No?

I went to reach for the door to open it and thought it was over right, and she said no, run.

Did you see your wife?

Just hear her?

I just heard her, okay, So you never actually made it through the threshold, and made it through the threshold.

Was the door completely closed the entire time you were there.

I didn't get a chance to touch it.

I went to reach for it was closed.

Yeah, it was closed, Yes, sir, it was closed.

And basically what you heard was run, Lonnie, Run run.

I told you to run.

And so now when you when you heard her say that, I mean, you automatically assumed there was something something wrong.

So I turn around and I parked the car and I called nine one one.

As Lonnie approached Erica's front door, he heard Denise's voice, but her words were garbled and frantic.

He thought she was telling him to run.

Later he would be told that she was actually screaming for help, but in that moment, all he heard was the urgency panic.

Turned and ran and called nine one one.

By the time police arrived, the house was in flames.

They respond to the house, they go around the back.

They see some smoke coming out of the window.

They're able to tell that an air conditioner unit was partially pushed out the window.

They then removed that air conditioning unit and pull Erica's mom from the window.

Officers pulled the Nise from the burning home.

She was barely alive, her body battered and soaked in blood.

Then they found Erica.

They were able to go back in that room or see in that room that there's another body laying on the floor.

They put that fire out and or partially put that fire out, and they're able to tell that Erica is now deceased.

When she was found, a fire hadn't been set in the bedroom where she was at.

She was burned.

She did have some severe blunt force trauma.

We later found out that she had been stomped on severely on her stomach.

There was a lot of internal bleeding, which is one of the causes of death, and she had also been strangled.

The corner testifies that she had elacerated liver, broken ribs, and evidence that she had been kicked in her stomach or stomped on, and then she had blunt force to her head.

And then she had the ligature marks and the ligature was still around her neck when she was laying on the floor in her room.

As police moved towards the backyard, something strange caught their attention.

They caught a glimpse of a man who had closed the back door When.

They come around the back door to see if there's anyone else in the house, they're met by a male trying to come out the door.

He then pulls the door shut on them, and then they have to break in the door, and they find that mail hiding under the dining room table with a like a duffel bag next to him.

It didn't take long for police to realize what was happening.

The man had been trying to escape, but the police had arrived too quickly, trapping him inside.

Well, next guy, I was laying near the boro.

We got here.

Oh, I think we got here.

Too quick because when they got here, they said, look there's somewhere at dinner you shut the back door.

Officers forced the door open and entered the smoke filled room.

Lying under the dining room table was a man in his forties.

His name was Lance Hunley.

Forty six year old Lance Hunley was from Washington, d c.

He was coming and staying in Youngstown.

He was brother to Erica Huff's child's father.

So Erica Huff had a child with Greg Hunley.

This gentleman Lance, whose name is Lance Hunley.

But according to what you folks and Johnathan we're telling us his brother is the father of your little grandchild.

That's true, Okay, So there is some connection with this guy.

And apparently from what we're getting, he had nowhere to live, and your daughter has allowed him to come and live with her for the last three to four weeks that graduating.

I noticed on his idea that he had an address in Warren, Ohio.

Well, that was where he was staying with his brother.

Is that where the grandchild's father stays.

He was staying with him.

He was staying with him, and he said it was too many people over there, so he couldn't sleep because he was working at night, right, And so that's when he asked, Erica, can I come and stay with you.

As investigators dug into Hundley's past, they uncovered his connection to Erica.

He was the brother of Erica's daughter's father.

When Hunley first moved to Youngstown, he stayed with his brother, but that arrangement fell apart.

Needing a place to live, he turned to Erica.

She agreed to take him in.

That was a decision that would later cost her everything.

Now, over the.

Last three or four weeks, I mean, has there been anything that Eric has said I mean, was she concerned about this.

Guy at all?

Did she say anything about erratic behavior?

Said to Denise and I that he was complaining about the girls that come to clean her up.

He said they're not your friends.

He said they got to do their.

Job, and he complained about that a couple of times.

But Erica, I mean, in the last three or four weeks, has not complained about it.

Almost things she complained about him trying to tell.

Her what the comfort keepers.

What the comfort peoples, and that's her job to take care of them.

But she never like said anything like I'm afraid of this guy.

He's not hating me, nothing like that.

Has he ever had words with your wife before?

No, No, not that I know of.

No.

Right at first, Hunley wasn't the worst housemate, but he did have a troubling personality.

Erica's in home healthcare workers later revealed that he was controlling and bossy.

They claimed that when they rejected his unwanted advances, his behavior turned hostile, and one of them eventually refused to go to Erica's house if Hunley was there.

Erica eventually realized she couldn't keep him around and planned on asking Lance to leave.

Hey, listen, we're going to be getting warrants on this guy at the hospital this morning.

Okay, okay.

If he's get being treated or relief, it would be do.

You know, I don't know he's being there, he's under observation.

I don't think that personally.

I don't think there's anything wrong with him.

Gammon, Yeah, okay.

After being pulled from the burning home, Hunley was taken to the hospital for smoking elation, but as soon as doctors cleared him, he was escorted straight to the Youngstown police station for questioning.

Okay, I am detective stars at wrong roadway and your name, sir is Lance l A n Cezar.

Yes, Lance, could get take a few minutes and leave that alone and talk with her.

Sure, multi tell well or we don't want you to multitask, We don't want to talk to you and pay attention.

Then you can look at that all you want.

Sir.

Funny knew he was in trouble when detectives began the interview.

He feigned distraction, pretending to be preoccupied with his hospital paperwork.

There was an obvious attempt to downplay the gravity of a situation.

Perhaps he thought acting indifferent would convince them he wasn't capable of brutally murdering a disabled woman.

It didn't work.

Would you like to speak with us or about this incident?

Yeah?

Why am I here?

Okay?

Well, we're going to explain that to you.

Okay, We're gonna explain everything to you.

Lance.

Where do you live, sir?

Well, right now, I was staying at urga house house huff.

You were staying there?

Yes?

And how long are you staying this?

Sir?

Beautiful?

Buttom off, how do you know Erica?

How did you come to live there?

Her daughter is my niece.

My brother and her head a relationship.

I know you've been living there around a month.

But how long have you known Erica?

Have you known it for years?

My niece would be six.

I've been knowing her about eight eight o.

My brother, I don't know, maybe eight years.

Eight years?

Your Mary, do you have a pretty good relationship with her?

Of course?

Okay.

Detectives started gathering background details, then they cut to the chase the events leading up to Erica's death.

Were you at home at forty four Cleveland last evening?

Excuse me?

Were you home at forty four Cleveland last evening?

At Thursday evening Thursday evening, I was in and out.

Okay, but at some time did you come home for the night, like to go to bed and that kind of stuff.

Oh yeah, let's let's just speed it up.

Man.

When I got home?

What time did you get home last night?

What happened?

Yes?

I got home.

I don't know.

I left the bar?

What bar?

So seven time?

So you went from the seven tavern to home?

That's right right up the street.

Okay?

Do you remember about what time that might have been closing time?

Or didn't look at my why he's doing the slightest idea.

Fuddally claimed that he'd spent the night drinking at a bar before coming home.

Beyond that, he refused to say much of anything else.

When you got home, you have your own bedroom, there is that?

Correct?

That's correct?

Okay, Erica has her own bedroom.

That's correct.

When you got home?

Was Erica awake asleep?

Do you never comes here?

It gives triggy.

Okay, now my question to you, and I'm gonna arrest at this time?

Yes, okay, okay, I think this and I'm I kind of figured out something from the police office.

Eric had died.

Yes, I think I need to get a lawyer.

I think I need to stop question.

Realizing he was cornered, Humley shut down the interview.

He asked for a lawyer, but before the interview ended, he made one bold, desperate claim.

But I will tell you this, I wasn't the only one in that house.

Else was in the house.

I don't know the person who choked me out.

You just told us you didn't want to talk to us.

It that's it.

And he talked to us, y'all do y'all job.

I just but you understand you either talk to us or don't.

You don't want to speak right, I'm I'm arrested for murder.

Apparently, yes you are, so I need yeah.

Okay, well let's see Saul communications this point though.

Okay, I just wanted this.

You know there was another person in the house.

This claim would become the foundation of Hunley's defense.

He insisted he wasn't the killer.

Someone else, he said, had murdered Erica and nearly beaten Denise to death, but the detectives weren't buying it, and thanks to Denise's survival, they didn't have to lance.

Hunley had been at a south Side bar.

According to him, we did go and interview people at the bar.

But Lance Hunley had returned to the residence on Cleveland Street, and it appears that Lance Hunley had strangled Erica, had taken her, had thrown her out of bed, beat her and stomped her with his feet, I mean kicked her so badly she had internal bleeding inside her stomach.

Lynn had gone to the garage and got a gas can spread gasoline around the bedroom.

During this time, Bennise Johnston had got the report of the life alert had come to the house.

When she entered the house, she observed Lance Hunley standing there with a gas can.

Asked him what he was doing with the gas can.

She took the gas can from Hunley took it out to the garage.

When she entered back into the kitchen area from the garage, Hunley attacked her with a claw hammer and hit her numerous times in the head.

Told Denise he had killed he had killed her daughter, and was going to kill her.

Actually produced a knife at this time and put it to her throat.

Drug Denise into the bedroom and threw her down on top of her daughter, who was smoldering from the from the fire.

Lance Hunley had savagely beaten Eric a Huff, murdering her in cold blood.

When Denise arrived to check on her daughter, he turned on her as well, intending to finish her off, but before he could, Lonnie showed up, forcing Hunley to scramble.

Then came the police.

Lance's attempt to set the house on fire and erase the evidence had failed, so the police arrived.

Before Henley could make it out of the house.

So Hunley determined he cleaned up, put some clothing in a bay of the clothing with blood on it, and he laid down in the dining room, and when officers arrive, he acted like he was a victim of his crime.

Detective Ron Roadway didn't have to speculate because Denise Johnson survived.

Though she was critically injured, she lived to tell him exactly what happened that morning.

Denise Johnson did survive the attack.

She had been hit numerous times in the head with a hammer.

Believe her injuries included a fracture's skull severe lacerations.

I mean, when I.

Saw her at the hospital, she looked horrific, but by the next day, I mean she was quite a strong woman, and I mean was able to come back putty quickly from the injuries and was very very helpful in the outcome of this case.

Later, Denise would give an official recorded statement, and nearly three years after the attack, she would stand in front of a jury base her daughter's killer and tell them the truth.

In the end, the jury had to make a decision not about guilt, but about whether or not Lance Hunley deserve to die.

In twenty eighteen, prosecutors in Youngstown, Ohio, were preparing for a murder trial a lot of that going around in Ohio.

Their target was forty eight year old Lance Hunley.

He was accused of savagely beating forty one year old Erica Huff to death and nearly doing the same to her mother, sixty eight year old Denise Johnson.

Given the brutality and the heinous nature of the crimes, prosecutors had made their decision.

This wasn't just a murder case.

This was a death penalty case.

When you have the defendant or the suspect at the scene with a double bag full of his bloody clothes and he killed and attempted to kill two or more persons, this is one of those cases where we knew the death penalty specification might be on the table.

Of course, before the trial could begin, Hunley needed a lawyer and he needed a defense.

Neither would come easily.

Hunley initially claimed he was insane at the time, only to later change his mind.

He fired his first set of lawyers after they pressed to have his competency evaluated.

In July of last year, after his new attorneys asked that he be tested again.

The issue has to be resolved, cannot be abandoned.

I think we all know that I am having some trouble convincing mister Hunley.

If such, Hunley became so angry in court he had to be restrained.

As the trial approached, Hunley made things as difficult as possible.

He was combative, disruptive, and openly hostile towards the court.

He had no interest in working with the public defenders assigned to his case.

Until you can submit to a competency examine, evenish, until you submit to a competency examination, that that right didn't.

And you're the extra set of company of that which I don't.

I never wanted to fush.

I understand that, and trying to me.

You are trying to make new things that I don't want it.

If you want to do it or not, you're order.

I do now still in you.

After a second competency hearing, the court granted Hunley permission to change his insanity defense.

Why do they always think you're crazy when you're actually stupid?

Beats me?

But there was still the issue of him refusing to accept any of the attorneys provided.

To him this morning.

After firing his second set of lawyers.

Hunley insisted he could not work with anyone who was local.

But I simply asked you put out an exsurnance from Auti town, and you told me not.

But the judge said she'd changed her mind and would find Hunley a public defender from out of the area.

That seemed to satisfy him.

However, less than five minutes later, they were all back again, with the defendant asking how long it would take to find new lawyers.

The judge couldn't give him an answer.

I'll show you.

And even when the judge asked him a series of questions to see if Hundley knew what he was doing, he was insistent, figure.

That I'll figure that.

I am absolutely positive.

In the end, Hunley made a drastic decision to represent himself.

The court begrudgingly allowed it, appointing stand by counsel to assist if needed.

With that settled, jury selection began and soon the trial was under way.

Prosecutors went to work laying out their case.

We used the ambulance drivers to talk about who waved them off when they came to the door, and it was him, obviously who waved them off.

We used the coroner's testimony about what Erica's causes a manner of death was.

We used the police to talk about their investigation and all the different evidence that they collected.

We had DNA experts to talk about not only where Erica's DNA would have been, but also where Denise's blood was and where Lance Hunley's DNA was left.

And we have the detective kind of round up all the testimony at the end to kind of clean up and make all those connections as to why we think.

Humley did this in the first place.

The forensic and physical evidence against Hunley was overwhelming, but the prosecution had something even more powerful.

And I witnessed one of Hunley's victims had survived.

Erica's mom was alive to tell the story.

And Denise I was actually here Friday morning when you were in the emergency room, and.

I think you remember talking to me a little bit.

You were actually in very bad shape when I talked to you.

The doctors were just finishing stitching up at least six lacerations in your head and your forehead, but you were still conscious and you were able to talk to me, and you basically told me what had happened that day.

And the reason we're here now is we want to memorialize everything.

We put everything, especially in a homicide case.

We do it on GVD TAP.

Three years before Lance Hunley's trial began, Denise Johnson sat in a hospital bed, battered but alive.

It was twenty fifteen, just a few days after the nightmare that had unfolded in Erica's home.

Denise was recovering from the brutal attack that had left her daughter dead.

Despite the trauma, she spoke to Detective Ron Roadway in a recorded interview.

So I'm going to take you back to early Friday morning.

Now, I know the medical alert went off sometime a few minutes after two o'clock in the morning on Friday.

The sixth Rural Metro Ambulance was dispatched there.

They were called and you also recalled it.

You were a contacts and when you arrived, correct me if I'm wrong.

You told me you actually have a key to the house and you went in.

Yes, when I opened the door, he was in the living room, and you say he, and I said, the life Alert people with the lifeline people called me, and I said, where's Eric.

He said, she's sleeping, but the room smelled full of gas.

I said, why is this gasolene?

Can even know the red container here in the living room.

I don't know what his.

Answer was that because I feistily said, gasoline belongs in the garage with the lawnmower.

So I walked the gasolene camp out to the garage, put it next to the lawnmower, and come back in to go to get ready to check on Erica.

Deni's had no idea what she was walking into that morning.

Erica was already dead, her life stolen in a horrific act of violence, and within moments of stepping into the house, and He's found herself face to face with her daughter's killer.

He came over in the corner with the hammer and just started beating me unmercifully, just beating me and beating me.

And he said, why did you come?

I said, first.

Alert told me to come, and I you know, and the blood was gushing so and he said, you need to make peace with the Lord.

You need to make peace.

I said, I have he and the blood was just gushing, and I said, Lance, why are you doing this?

He said, all of you have just ditched me and I've got to kill you.

And then he's beating and beating.

But I heard Lonnie's truck come.

I heard Lonie's truck come, but he was so busy crashing the hammer I did he didn't.

He didn't hear the truck.

At sixty eight years old, Denise fought back with everything she had, but she was up against a man consumed by rage.

Then through the chaos, she heard something, a familiar sound.

It was her husband's truck pulling up outside.

Your truck?

Is it gonna allowed Exhaustris, Yes, she's got phlegmatics on it.

It makes a little noise, so.

Like rumble rumble.

Oh yeah.

So In other words, okay, if she was inside the house, it would not be uncommon or and reasonable for her to hear.

The air truck pull up with the loud motor.

Yes, and that would be distinctive and she would know that you.

Yeah.

Matter of fact, when I went to the door, she hollowed Lonnie run and run.

Desperate, Denise screamed for help, but Lonnie misheard her.

Instead of help Lonnie help, he thought she was shouting at him to run.

That misunderstanding may have saved his life.

If Frannie had charged into the house instead of running for help.

There was no telling how much worse this could have been.

Only may have killed them both.

Of course, the terrible downside of that misunderstanding was that Denise was left alone in the house with Hunley, but.

He continued to beat me and scene forever.

And then he pulled out a switch blade after he broke the hammer my.

Head when he pulled it.

You saw him pull the switchblade out.

I know it was a very heck.

Did you feel him stab you?

No, because you know you have a stab wound under here.

Yeah?

Just he did stab you?

I think he did.

Yes, Yeah, we saw an emergency.

There was a puncture woe.

That okay, And then he started to joke me and dragged me into the living woman.

I fought and I fought and not finally coulding fighting, and he took my breath.

Hunley strangled Denise until she lost consciousness.

Then, as if disposing of garbage, he dragged her lifeless body into Erica's bedroom and tossed her on top of her daughter's corpse.

After dousing the room in gasoline, he struck a match and watched the fire begin to consume the evidence of his crimes.

But then something unexpected happened.

Denise started to wake up.

I realized I felt flames, so I started patting it out.

Then he came with some alcohol and threw it in my face, and then he walked away, and I went to the window and I started pulling the side of the ark, and I did pat my daughter.

Yes, I said, she's still warm, maybe she's still alive, right, you know.

And I said we've got to get out of here.

And and then I thought my jacket burning, so I took it.

Off at the wood Dale.

But then I reached for the window with the air conditioning thing he was and as I'm pulling the sides out, the police apparently were pulling heard.

Yes, they said, Mayam, he gotta.

I said, I'm ready to come just take me, and they pulled me through the window.

By the time police pulled Denise from the burning house, she was barely clinging to life, bloodied and gasping for air.

She used what little strength she had to plead with them to save Erica.

But deep down she already knew the truth.

Her daughter was gone, I said, but my daughter had said here because I wasn't sure.

I kind of knew that my heart she was.

Despite the trauma, Denise's account of what happened on that horrible morning never changed.

Three years later, in front of a courtroom packed with jurors, attorneys, and the man who had nearly killed her, she repeated the same truth she had given detectives.

She told them exactly what Lance Humley had done.

Today they had the mother of murder victim, Erica, on the witness stand.

When she returned, she says, Hundley began beating her about the head with a hammer.

She asked him why he was doing that, he said.

She claimed in front of the courtroom that Hunley admitted killing her daughter.

And was going to kill her too.

After laying out the physical evidence and presenting Denise's unshakable testimony, the prosecution rested their case, the time had come for Hunley to explain himself and present a defense.

Hunley told the jury he came to the area in August twenty fifteen and had been staying at Erica Huff's house on the South Side, paying her two hundred dollars a month.

On the night of November fifth, he'd gone to a couple bars, came back and smoked some marijuana with Erica and fell asleep watching TV.

I'm on the couch.

I couldn't see they face, okay, and there was choking me out from behind.

A Hundley says the attacker used chloroform on him and he blacked out.

Coming to in the kitchen, I started to war towards the back.

That's when I seen a guy come out of HER's room.

And if the gas came in.

Now groggy and frightened, Hundley claims he sees the victim lying on the floor of her bedroom.

And I.

Chucked her an.

I didn't feel the pause.

And they took the witness stand and launched into a bizarre theatrical performance.

According to him, a masked intruder had attacked him and knocked him unconscious with chloroform.

When he came to, he claimed Erica was already dead.

She told lads, it's not too late.

We can come up with something to tell the police.

Hundley says he then started hitting the elderly woman with a hammer, telling prosecutors during cross examination he was scared.

I was offended.

I was defending myself.

Oh yes.

Prosecutors pressed him, asking why, with the house filling with smoke, he didn't try to escape.

Hundley kept saying he didn't.

Know what to do.

I'm hunding the influence of chloroflum.

Although Hunley was rescued from the burning house, he says he never told anyone but his lawyer's this story for nearly three years, consisting today.

He never killed Erica Huff.

In a move as desperate as it was disgusting, Hunley pointed the finger at Denise Johnson.

He insinuated that she was somehow involved in her own daughter's murder, and that in a moment of panic, he had attacked her with a hammer.

The story was ridiculous and coherent.

Den it made no sense whatsoever.

Humbley, claiming this morning he was defending himself that he saw Denise Johnson carrying a gas can coming into the house, didn't know what was going on, and he grabbed a hammer and started hitting her with it, claiming to be defending himself.

But this morning, during closing arguments, prosecutors told jurors Humbley concocted the story, hoping to create doubt.

He beat her, He stomped on her, and then he strangled her.

He then had to get rid of the only witness who came to the house, Denise Johnson.

Hunley's defense was weak and almost laughable, and after closing arguments, the jury had their say.

After just three and a half hours of deliberation, jurders returned their verdicts shortly after two this afternoon.

We the jury find the dependent Lands Hunley guilty of aggravated murder and.

Violation of a hire us.

Humley sat motionless and quiet as the verdicts were read aloud, guilty in the premeditated death of Erica Huff, the attempted murderer of the victim's mother, and aggravated arson for setting fire to the crime scene.

The verdict surprised no one, except maybe for Hunley, guilty on all counts, but the jury had one more decision to make.

Would Lance get to live in the cozy little jail cell or would he pay the ultimate price for his crimes.

Just last week, a Mahoning County jury determined that a man from Youngstown should die for his crimes.

This morning, Judge Moore and Sweeney determined Lance Hunley offered absolutely nothing during his trials to offset that.

This morning, she upheld the jury's decision that he should die for the murder of Erica Huff back in November of twenty fifteen, as well as the attempted murder of Huff's mother than East Johnson.

Naturally, Hunley appealed the conviction and the death sentence.

In a unanimous decision, the Ohio Supreme Court upheld both.

As of April twenty twenty five, Lance Hunley sits on death row in Ross County, Ohio.

Of course, in today's world and in the state of Ohio, no execution date has been set, because haven't you heard suicidal empathies all the rage these days?

Despite the overwhelming evidence against him, only has never once admitted to what he did.

He probably never will, He's maintained, is in a sense, leaving the question of why unanswered I.

Think Lance committed this crime because Erica was pressuring him to leave and wanted him to leave, and he had nowhere else to go.

I don't know what was going on in his head that he felt he couldn't go back to Washington, d C.

Where he was from.

But apparently in his mind he was backed into a corner and this is the only way out.

What exactly triggered him, we don't know.

You know, he would not confess to this crime, but you know, we believe he was upset that she was asking to move out of the house.

Else.

You know, with my experience and what I felt on this case, he was the social path that he was.

He just you know, snapped and started, you know, strangling her and beating her.

No reason whatsoever they do what he did to such a severely handicapped woman.

Prosecutors and detectives have their theories about Hunley's motive.

They believe that Lance had been struggling financially, and when Erica told him that he had to move out, something inside of him snapped.

Ironically, if anyone had a right to feel beaten down by life, it was Erica.

Multiple sclerosis had stolen her ability to walk, her independence and even her ability to care for her own daughter.

But she never once let that turn her into a monster, not like Hunley, who, on the other hand, let his bitterness fester into something deadly.

That's what entitlement does to people.

They think they're owed by the world, and when they don't get what they want want, he decided to just go ahead and take it anyway.

After the attack, Erica's mother shared her own theory when that dug even deeper into what might have driven Hunley to kill.

Because we were not his friends.

We were everything I think he wanted and didn't have.

And then here I go a week before getting a b of and he says, well, why didn't you get a Mercedes?

I got what I wanted, you want and what I've worked.

For, And your husband worked all his life exactly.

Both your children are well educated college graduates working in.

Their lives, and we did we wanted.

Well, I'm getting want in this spring.

I said, well, you do what you want to do, you know, But he was I could see the resentment.

In his eyes.

He hated us.

We were everything in life that he may have wanted and didn't.

It seems that a toxic mix of jealousy, resentment, alcohol, and eviction pushed Hunley over the edge.

He brutally beat a disabled woman to death and then turned his fury on a sixty eight year old mother, nearly killing her as well.

Through it all, Hunley never stopped to consider one simple fact.

Erica was one of the only people in this world that had ever shown him kindness.

She'd given him a home when he needed one.

She didn't have to, but she did, and that kindness was repaid with disgusting, brutal violence.

I mean, the goodness of her their daughter allowed him to come there.

Yes, and he's been living there for about a month, right, and he even had his own bedroom there.

She was, I'm saying, think he just prayed upon her.

You know, I need somewhere to live.

I'm your I'm your daughter's uncle.

You know, just preyed upon her vulnerability.

And you know, probably she was probably a nice, sweet person, you know, felt felt bad.

For the guy.

But like many of us, Erica Huff believed in kindness.

She thought helping someone in need was the right thing to do.

It's what all those PBS specials tried to teach us.

Remember, But when she opened her door to a monster named Lance Hundley.

She unknowingly let evil inside her home, inside her life, and then it took her life, nearly silencing her mother as well in a brutal attempt to erase the truth.

But Denise survived.

She fought through unbearable pain to tell her daughter's story, to ensure that Hunley would never harm another person again, and perhaps to teach all of us a very important lesson.

In the end, her voice put him exactly where he belonged on death row.

Erica's murder is a chilling reminder that evil doesn't always announce itself.

Sometimes it wears the face of someone you trust, and sometimes the kindest hearts pay the highest price.

Are you a true crime fanatic?

You wake up at three o'clock in the morning suddenly realizing you're purchasing copious amounts of rubber gloves and bleach.

So head on over to swordscale dot com.

We got a true crime TV show that may be just your thing.

For just twenty bucks, you could upgrade, wash them all on a long weekend, and then unsubscribe before the next month's bill comes.

But don't tell the boss I told you that, because the guy that runs this place is kind of an asshole.

So anyway, the website to that TV show I was talking about is Swordinscale dot com.

Go check it out.

We also have a Android and iPhone app which we meticulously developed for your pleasure.

So, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go launder seventeen thousand dollars through a locally owned Greek restaurant until next week.

Stay safe,