Man Confesses to Stealing Machete and Killing Mother, Say Authorities

Following a recent court session, fresh information has surfaced regarding an Ohio man accused of swinging a machete at a woman seated on the back of a motorcycle.

Testifying in court, Captain Shane Hatfield of the Preble County Sheriff’s Office revealed that Kenneth Wayne Brabant, 59, became emotional, expressing remorse and distress upon discovering the death of 41-year-old Leigha Huff, as reported by Dayton’s CBS affiliate WHIO.

He was so repentant, investigators said, that he reportedly drew a map for deputies to find the machete in the woods behind his home after he had initially cleaned the blood off of it and hid it.

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Law&Crime previously reported that Brabant was charged with murder, tampering with evidence, and assault in the case. It was the night of June 22 when Huff was riding on the back of a motorcycle with another man on Upper Somers Road in Camden. Around the same time, Brabant’s daughter, who has not been named, called 911.

“My ex is running up and down the road on his motorcycle, revving it up, trying to get my dad to come out,” she said, according to audio obtained by WHIO. “My dad is outside.”

Minutes later, Huff and the man she was riding with drove down the dark street. Suddenly, Huff was struck in the leg with something – later revealed to be a machete. “Oh my god, I’m hit, I’m hit,” the man she was with quoted her as saying.

Before emergency medical services were able to care for Huff, she bled out, authorities said. It is unclear if an ex-boyfriend of Brabant’s daughter was actually nearby that night. Authorities said neither Huff nor the man she was with knew Brabant or his daughter.

In court on Wednesday, Hatfield shined further light into what transpired after Huff’s death. When he interviewed Brabant, the suspect reportedly became apologetic and admitted to striking her with the machete.

“He [had] seen the motorcycle coming and he swung,” Hatfield said, per Cincinnati NBC affiliate WLWT. “So I asked him what he swung. He said, ‘that’s the bad part.’ So what was it? He said it was a machete.”

The outlet reported that Huff is being remembered as a single mother who was fighting a long battle with cancer. “She was a very wonderful person, very charismatic,” said Jeremy Tucker, a friend of Huff, according to Dayton NBC affiliate WDTN. “She loved live music and stuff like that.”