Judge: Lance Hundley competent to stand trial in capital murder of Erika Huff

YOUNGSTOWN

Judge Maureen A. Sweeney has ruled Lance Hundley competent to stand trial in his capital murder case.

The Mahoning County Common Pleas Court judge made her ruling today at the end of a competency hearing, at which Dr. Delaney Smith, a psychiatrist with Twin Valley Behavioral Health Care in Columbus, and Dr. Thomas Gazley, a psychologist with the Forensic Psychiatric Center of Northeast Ohio in Austintown, testified they found Hundley understood the legal proceedings against him and could assist in his defense.

Hundley, 47, of Washington Street, Warren, or Cleveland Street, Youngstown, could face the death penalty if he’s convicted in the Nov. 6, 2015, slaying of Erika Huff, 41, in her Cleveland Street home on Youngstown’s South Side.

Hundley is accused of beating Huff to death, beating her mother and setting the house on fire.

Police entered the burning house to rescue Hundley and Huff’s mother.

Read more about the case in Saturday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.