Background: The 7700 block of Upper Somers Road in Camden, Ohio (WHIO/YouTube) Inset: Kenneth Brabant appears in court on Wednesday, July 2, 2025, for murder and other charges (WHIO/YouTube)
New details have emerged in the case of an Ohio man accused of wildly swinging a machete at a woman on the back of a motorcycle following his court appearance on Wednesday.
Kenneth Wayne Brabant, 59, “became emotional” and was “upset and apologetic” when he learned 41-year-old Leigha Huff died, Preble County Sheriff”s Office Captain Shane Hatfield testified in court, per Dayton 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.
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.”
“It was always coming back and going away,” Tucker added to WLWT about the cancer. “She always survived through that and raised her son like an awesome mother would.”
Brabant is said to be expected to appear in common pleas court in the coming weeks.
