Accused pleads innocent in death

By Ed Runyan

Bond has been set at $1 million for the man charged in the homicide.

WARREN — Officials aren’t saying much about the murder investigation that followed the death of 28-year-old Clint Zimmerman of Logan Avenue Northeast last summer.

After Richard Zimmerman found his son’s body in a chair in the home July 17, police officers responded at about 7 p.m. and found Zimmerman dead of a gunshot wound to the upper right chest.

Police called in detectives and the Trumbull County coroner’s office to investigate.

Initially, Zimmerman’s death certificate, filed with common pleas court Sept. 2, listed the death as a suicide.

Police, however, had been on alert in July to the possibility that Zimmerman was a homicide victim.

A Warren police report says a detective learned July 18 that there were voice messages left on Zimmerman’s answering machine regarding a fight that had been planned for July 18 between Zimmerman and another man.

Lt. Gary Vingle of the Warren Police Department said detectives suspected that Zimmerman’s death was not suicide and further investigation supported that suspicion.

Vingle won’t say what additional evidence police obtained but said some of it was physical and some was “evidence of other kinds.”

A Warren police report says detectives conducted gunshot residue tests on Zimmerman, his father and others July 21. One of those tested was the person Zimmerman was allegedly going to fight on July 18, the police report said.

A gunshot residue test involves swabbing a person’s hand to determine whether chemicals such as lead, barium, antimony and graphite are found. Those chemicals are typically found on the web and back of a shooter’s hand, according to Priav, a gunshot residue kit manufacturer.

Police also took possession of a bullet from Zimmerman’s body and a 22-caliber rifle and ammunition.

Vingle said the additional information was relayed to Dr. Humphrey Germaniuk, the county’s forensic pathologist, and it caused him to reopen the investigation.

The coroner’s office filed an amended and corrected death certificate Dec. 2 indicating that Zimmerman’s death was a homicide.

Dr. Germaniuk, who was elected coroner last November, said the verdict reached on the cause and manner of death is an opinion, and such determinations can be changed if additional information is obtained, as in this case.

He declined to comment on what information he learned to cause him to change his ruling or when he made the change.

Because Zimmerman’s death is part of a criminal investigation that has resulted in murder and other charges being filed against Beau A. Palmer, 25, of Clermont Avenue Northeast, Warren, Dr. Germaniuk said he cannot answer specific questions about his investigation.

Chris Becker, an assistant county prosecutor, said Palmer is accused of killing Zimmerman by shooting him from a motor vehicle in front of the Zimmerman residence.

When asked if the shooting was a drive-by, Becker said it was not but refused to elaborate.

On Monday, Palmer pleaded innocent in common pleas court to murder, improperly firing at or into a home from a motor vehicle, being a felon in possession of a firearm and tampering with evidence.

The murder charge carries a possible penalty of 15 years to life but not the death penalty.

Judge Peter Kontos set bond at $1 million cash, set a pretrial hearing for Monday and a trial date of March 23.

Palmer and Zimmerman have felony criminal records. Palmer was convicted in 2004 of breaking and entering and was sentenced to six months in prison. Zimmerman was convicted in 2007 of carrying concealed weapons and improperly handling firearms in a motor vehicle and placed on five years’ probation.

runyan@vindy.com