YOUNGSTOWN — A family was “devastated” Thursday when a jury found an ambulance company’s response to the scene where a woman was killed and her mother beaten did not “breach the standard of care.”

The company, American Medical Response, will not be held financially liable for the death of Erika Huff, 41, and the severe beating of her mother, Denise Johnson, 71.

Emergency medical technicians responded to Huff’s 44 Cleveland St., Youngstown home after a medical alert device was activated there, but left when the man convicted of her murder told them everything was fine. Johnson was nearly killed when Lance Hundley, now on death row, attacked her when she arrived to help the EMTs with her daughter. The EMTs had already left.

Two people voted to hold ambulance company AMR liable, but six others voted against it. In a civil case, only three-fourths of the jury has to agree for a verdict.

The six jury members felt there was no breach in the standard of care AMR’s employees exhibited that night.

Attorney David Engler represented the Huffs and Johnsons in court. He was asking for about $10 million for Huff’s death and about $5 million for Johnson.

“The family is devastated,” Engler said. “We will look to see if there is anything we can can address in appeal.”

Attorneys for AMR argued what happened to the the women was terrible, but it couldn’t have been predicted by the EMTs and dispatcher working Nov. 6, 2015; Hundley was the one responsible for the crime, not the EMTs.

Hundley was sentenced to death in 2018 on charges of aggravated murder, attempted murder, felonious assault and two counts of aggravated arson.

Cleveland medical malpractice attorney Don Switzer argued there were no signs that anything was wrong when the EMTs arrived and Hundley told them the device was pressedby accident — and everything was fine.

Engler accused the company of having an “astounding” lack of interest in accountability for the actions of its employees. He argued the AMR dispatcher did not do his job by not sharing information with EMTs that a Youngstown dispatcher shared. And, the EMTs didn’t do enough at the scene to ensure Hundley was telling the truth, violating a standard of care any other dispatcher or EMT would have or should have abided to, he argued.

But Switzer argued that medical alert devices are often pressed by accident, and it isn’t unusual for someone to apologize and tell responding EMTs it was an accident. There were no signs of distress at the scene, he said.