The Adobe Flash Player is required to view this multimedia interactive. Get it here.

Man dies after being 'viciously assaulted'; suspect behind bars

Neighbors mourn Fairfield man who was quick to help others.

Bryan Keith Hodge, 27, is believed to have played a part in the fatal assault of Michael Huff.

Bryan Hodge of Hamilton was arrested Thursday night, July 29. He is accused in the Wednesday night, July 29, beating death of Michael Huff Jr. of Fairfield.

ENLARGE PHOTO

State plane cleared by FAA to fly again
12:21 a.m.
Ohio to dedicate $75M for demolishing abandoned homes
12:14 a.m.
County candidates seek to sway voters at forum
11:26 p.m.
Franklin may leave joint EMS group
11:22 p.m.
Ohio leaders preparing defense of bases amidst closures
10:36 p.m.
> More headlines

By Josh Sweigart, Staff Writer Updated 6:43 AM Friday, July 30, 2010

HAMILTON — A 27-year-old man was arrested Thursday, July 29, on a murder charge in the beating of a Fairfield man.

Bryan Hodge was arrested at  8:30 p.m. and held on single counts of murder and tampering with evidence, accusing him of being involved in the slaying of Michael Huff Jr. on Wednesday night.

Details of Hodge’s arrest have not been released. He was booked at  9:54 p.m. into the Butler County Jail, where he is being held without bond, according to jail records.

Huff, 36, was found slumped over in the passenger seat of a pickup truck parked behind a home at 20 Millville Ave.

According to police, Huff was “viciously assaulted” and had injuries to his head, neck, arms and chest. He was taken to Fort Hamilton Hospital shortly after 10 p.m. and later flown to University Hospital in Cincinnati, where he was pronounced dead.

Wednesday night, Brian and Terry Johnson noticed Huff when they were walking their dogs on Millville Avenue. Someone told them there had been a fight. They saw blood and Huff in the truck. Terry Johnson said she reached in and shook him.

“I didn’t feel breathing,” she said. “It scared me to death.”

She then ran across the street to a fire station and told firefighters: “I think somebody’s dead over here.” Two paramedics returned with her and performed CPR before placing the man in an ambulance, she said.

In a 911 call Wednesday night, a man who said he lives at 20 Millville Ave. told police Huff was a former neighbor.

“There was a fight out here, and there’s blood everywhere,” the caller said, saying Huff broke his window trying to get into his house, and that he helped Huff into his truck, but Huff then passed out and wouldn’t wake up.

Huff’s neighbors remember him as a caring man.

“If a fly landed on his food, I don’t think he’d kill it,” said Rena Kidd, who lived upstairs from Huff in the Southgate Apartments in Fairfield. “He would do anything for anyone in this building.”

Kidd said she loved having Huff as a neighbor for the last four years. He was always keeping an eye on the building and was quick to loan someone a quarter for the laundry machine, she said. “I just wish there was a whole lot of Mikes in this building. He was a nice guy,” she said.

“He always called me his little sister, and I called him my big brother because he was taller than me. But I was older than him,” Kidd said, and he was always asking her to go fishing.