Opinion ID: 2299781
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 32

Heading: Aaron Huff

Text: On February 4, 1984, Aaron Huff, age twenty-three, broke into the apartment of a seventy-four-year-old man to steal money that Huff knew the man had. The man had always withdrawn cash from his bank account to pay his rent on the first of the month. When Huff entered the apartment, the man was sitting in a chair. The man started to get up and move towards Huff, but he changed his mind and sat down. As Huff began to disconnect the man's television set, the man charged at Huff. Huff then beat the man until he stopped moving. The man was later found dead, bloodied, and beaten, with bruises and lacerations on his hands, neck, nose, ears, chest, and the top of his head. Huff took $270, the television set, and a clock radio. Huff was charged with purposeful-or-knowing murder, felony murder, and burglary, and he was convicted of all charges. The prosecutor filed a notice of aggravating factors for c(4)(c), extreme suffering, and c(4)(g), contemporaneous felony. The jury found both aggravating factors and found mitigating factors c(5)(d), mental disease, defect, or intoxication; and c(5)(h), the catch-all factor. The jury also found that the aggravating factors did not outweigh the mitigating factors. Huff was sentenced to life imprisonment with a thirty-year parole disqualifier. Huff had been drinking heavily on the day of the murder. A psychiatrist testified that Huff goes wild when drunk. Huff was raised in poverty. After living in a shack, Huff and his family eventually began living in a car. His mother was an alcoholic and his father was incarcerated. Huff started drinking at age fourteen and started using drugs shortly thereafter. At some point during his adolescence, Huff attempted suicide. There was psychiatric testimony that Huff had an antisocial disorder, an antisocial personality and mentally was still an adolescent. Between 1978 and 1984, Huff was convicted of eight disorderly persons offenses, conspiracy, larceny, and two counts of burglary.