Robert E. “Hubba” Herron flashes a big smile while hanging out by Little Beaver Creek. The 30-year-old East Liverpool resident lost his life during a shooting on Sept. 9, 2024. The man found responsible was sentenced to life in prison Monday. (Photo provided by Hubba’s sister, Latasha Herron)

LISBON — Robert E. “Hubba” Herron’s mother and sister called him their protector.

On Monday, they received justice for the tragic loss of their protector on Sept. 9., 2024, seeing his killer sentenced to life in prison.

“We’ve all been praying,” Roberta “Bobbi Jean” Pratt said.

She and her daughter, Latasha Herron, Hubba’s older sister, have been attending the jury trial and all the hearings related to the case against Jeno L. Wall, the 35-year-old former Steubenville resident now convicted of aggravated murder, murder and intimidation for shooting Hubba to death in Wellsville.

“Just why? Why? If he wanted to fist fight, he would have fought him. You just don’t bring a gun, a weapon, to a fist fight,” Pratt said when asked for her thoughts after the hearing ended. “I still wish there was a death penalty.”

“It’s not going to bring Hubba back,” Latasha said.

In talking about Wall, Pratt said, “He’s still going to be able to breathe. He’s able to answer a phone, still be alive.”

Hubba was a big boy when he was born, 9 pounds 22 inches long. She talked about how Hubba got his nickname. When he was 3 or 4 months old, there was some song that would come on the radio that said “Hubba, Hubba, Hubba” and he would be in his bouncer and just giggle.

“We just started calling him Hubba and it stuck,”she said.

Latasha said he loved to go tubing down the creek at Grimms Bridge, which is Little Beaver Creek. That was the last thing they did together, tubing down the creek. He previously worked at Wellsville Terminals and she said he cherished his two dogs, Tink and Tiny.

Latasha is a cancer survivor and recalled that when she was 12 years old, Hubba shaved his head bald to match her.

“He was my biggest supporter,” she said.

She shared something she wrote that she had wanted to say to Wall, that Hubba was first a son, a brother, an uncle, a supporter. He was her keeper and protector.

“You took that all away the night you shot that gun at his back. You took my baby brother from me for what? For life now? I wish I knew the truth but the only one that can tell the truth, and he would, is Hubba, so therefore we’ll never know what happened. But because of all the evidence we were able to put the pieces of the puzzle together.”

During one of his outbursts in the trial, Wall told the judge he was fighting for his life.

According to Latasha, he doesn’t know the meaning.

“Fighting for your life? Let me tell you about fighting for your life. IVs and a toxic chemical, chemo therapy, going through your body to save your life. Losing every piece of hair on your body, fighting cancer,” she wrote. “My baby brother was the first one sitting by me getting his head shaved bald so his big sister wasn’t the only one and to let me know he was always there for me. Yeah I did that four times. That’s fighting for your life. So this ‘I’m fighting for my life,’ this isn’t it. This is something you brought on yourself.”

“Who are you to play the act of God and take my brother’s life from him? I hope and pray every night that my brother hunts you. I hope that he’s the first thing you think about when you wake up and the last thing you think about when you go to sleep,” Latasha wrote.

Hubba’s mother said he got around some bad things and the wrong people, but he was coming home. She said he was so happy he was coming home and was going to get clean and get back to being the person he once was.

“He was gathering his stuff from all around town and he was coming home,” Pratt said.

He would have been back in East Liverpool at home within 24 hours. Instead, she received a phone call in the early morning hours of Sept. 10, 2024 that he was gone. He wasn’t coming home ever again.

“He was our protector,” both mother and sister said. “We were his and he was ours.”