Man critically injured in alleged assault with hammer
Billy "Gene" Hollified didn't die in the attack that left him hospitalized for nearly a month, but according to his family, he may never be the same.
Hollifield, 55, has been hospitalized at Atrium Health in Charlotte since May 26, when another man, 35-year-old Christopher Scott Huggins, is alleged to have beaten him in the face and head with a hammer, breaking the bones in his face and cracking his skull.
One of Hollifield's daughters, Tiffney Bell, said that her father is unrecognizable.
"As far as being able to look at him and see my father, I don't see my father," she said.
Hollifield and Huggins apparently knew one another because Huggins is related to one of Hollifield's neighbors, Bell said, but it is not yet clear why Huggins might have assaulted Hollifield. Hollifield, who has brain damage from the attack, can say little about what happened.
"All he says is that he was hit in the head," Bell said.
The alleged assault happened sometime after 6 p.m. at a tire shop on Margrace Road in Kings Mountain.
In an unrelated case, Huggins pleaded guilty May 8 to a variety of charges in Gaston County, including felony charges of breaking and entering and larceny of a motor vehicle. He was sentenced to nine to 20 months of supervised probation and released from jail. Less than three weeks later, he was arrested and accused of assaulting Hollifield. He was charged with assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill inflicting serious injury.
Bell said she wants him to face serious consequences.
"I feel like he should get the most sentencing that would fit," she said. "The man that is laying there now is a totally different version of my father."
Hollifield's other daughter, Nikki Dyer, said her family is waiting to see how her father's recovery progresses.
"For the rest of my life, my daddy's life is changed. They took a part of him," she said. "To beat him with a hammer, I feel like that's so personal."
Sharon Hollifield, Hollifield's wife, said that she spoke to her husband Tuesday evening for the first time since he was hospitalized. She said that doctors don't yet know the full extent of the brain damage, but he sounded like a child when he spoke. He asked to go home.
"It's like a child's voice," she said. "I just know he won't ever be who he was. The strong man that we knew, he won't ever be that."
Huggins has been charged with assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill or inflict serious injury.
This article originally appeared on The Gaston Gazette: Man critically injured in alleged assault with hammer
