(STORY IMAGE:KHQ.COM)
COEUR D'ALENE, Idaho -A fight in Coeur d'Alene quickly took a turn no one intended, all with a single punch. A man is dead and another has been charged with manslaughter following the fight Sunday morning. Officers arrived to find 29-year-old Jeffrey Marfice with a significant head injury. He was rushed to the hospital and doctors worked to stabilize his condition, but he was pronounced dead Monday.
Family described Marfice as someone who wouldn't harm a fly and in this case he was sticking up for his girlfriend.
"She had to say goodbye to her father while he was hooked up to tubes, not breathing on his own,” Crystal Mobbs said.
It breaks your heart having to hear what Mobbs and Lauren Richards had to go through over the weekend.
“Jeff is the father of a 6-year-old and today is her birthday and she got to make her Father's Day card in the waiting room at the hospital,” Richards said.
Richards, Jeff Marfice’s ex-wife, and Mobbs, Marfice’s girlfriend, waited and waited… hoping for a sign.
“Trying to explain to his daughter that daddy Jeff isn't going to be OK the day before her birthday,” Richards said, “and then to hear her ask me 'So daddy Jeff's not going to be at my birthday party?’”
Marfice passed away Monday after his family says he stood up to Tyler Finlay.
Mobbs says Finlay was harassing her and that’s when Jeff walked up and told him to stop.
Police say Finlay punched Marfice in the head, and after being hit, Marfice fell and hit his head on the pavement.
“The next thing we knew it was just game over,” Mobbs said.
Tyler Finlay is now charged with manslaughter in the death of Jeffrey Marfice.
“We needed to show support for Jeff and show who he was,” Mobbs said wiping away tears, “and show everyone in that courtroom that how many of us loved him, the rest of us are still at the hospital by his side.”
The judge set Tyler Finlay's bond at $250,000.
His next court appearance has not been set yet.