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Warren killer of great uncle gets life in prison with no parole
By Ed Runyan
WARREN
Prosecutors have DNA evidence linking Marcus Honsaker to last November’s murder of his great-uncle, Donald Giovannone, but “in speaking with the family” they decided to offer Honsaker a plea agreement allowing him to escape the death penalty.
Honsaker, 27, of Reo Court, accepted the agreement and pleaded guilty Monday in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court to aggravated murder, two counts of aggravated robbery, aggravated burglary, and tampering with evidence and received a sentence of life in prison with no chance for parole.
“I’d like to apologize to my family for everything I put them through,” Honsaker said.
A family member, Bobbi Marsh, spoke next, saying Giovannone, 71, of Atlantic Street Northwest, “was a very kind person who would do anything for anyone. He was always thinking of others before himself.”
She listed a long line of people who lost their father, son, brother, hunting buddy and hunting instructor, and motorcycle and race car friend.
“Today is his only daughter’s birthday,” she said. “Her name is Mavis. She won’t be getting a phone call or be able to Skype with her dad today or ever again. In fact the conversations between her and ‘Gio’ that have been going on every other day for decades have been silenced for 10 months.”
Marsh said Giovannone’s death matters “to all of his lifelong friends – from school mates, military veterans, co-workers and retired friends – that they will not have the chance to hear his distinct voice and hear him crack a joke and laugh.”
But the Giovannone family includes men who were ministers. “We were taught to not to hate but to forgive in our hearts, not to judge others, and at the same time be accountable for the decisions and actions we make,” she said.
Chris Becker, assistant county prosecutor, said prosecutors believe Honsaker went to Giovannone’s house to rob him of cash that Honsaker probably believed Giovannone had withdrawn from the bank in anticipation of a hunting trip intended to start in a few days.
Instead, Honsaker, who had been to prison three times in the past, killed his great-uncle with a knife and fled with cash, Giovannone’s pickup truck and identification card.
But Honsaker left the truck in the Jamestown Plaza parking lot on Mahoning Avenue, got a ride from someone and dumped the ID, knife and his blood-stained pants in a garbage receptacle used for construction materials behind the plaza.
Those items were recovered from the receptacle about 10 days later, and the pants contained DNA from Honsaker and Giovannone, Becker said. Becker gave credit to Detective John Greaver of the Warren Police Department for providing prosecutors with evidence of Honsaker’s guilt.
“We are satisified in that he did not have to die,” Judi Giovannone Gensburg, Donald Giovannone’s sister, said of Honsaker. “We raised this little boy, we know he went to church. We didn’t want him to die. We’re not happy, but we’re OK.”
Becker noted that it can be difficult to convince juries to deliver a death sentence.
“There were only two death sentences in Ohio last year, and one of them was in Trumbull County,” Becker said of David Martin, who killed a man and nearly killed a woman at a house on Oak Street Southwest in 2012.
Marsh said the murder “has torn our family apart, has broken ties, and has caused our family a lot of problems. ... We hope that we can heal and be at peace as a family unit again.”