Coroner says woman didn't die right away from gunshots

WARREN

One more witness is expected to testify after lunch today in the William Fambro murder trial following testimony this morning by three scientific experts.

Dr. Humphrey Germaniuk, Trumbull County coroner, testified to the six gunshot wounds he found on the body of Teresa Hunter, 35, saying two of them hit her lung and probably killed her within 10 minutes.

One of those wounds was what the coroner called a “contact wound,” meaning the barrel of the gun was pressed against Hunter’s abdomen as the shot was fired. The other potentially fatal shot was fired into her back and also hit the same lung.

Another shot was fired into her eyebrow, but it didn’t fracture the skull and therefore would not have been fatal.

Fambro has indicated that he is nearly blind, and witnesses, who say he is known by the nickname “Big Shot,” have said he has had limited vision for many years.

A ballistics expert from the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation in Richfield, Ohio, testified that a handgun pulled from the Mahoning River at Summit Street was the gun that fired the shell casings found at the Riverview Motel Oct. 14 with Hunter’s body.

A Warren woman testified Tuesday that Fambro helped her buy the handgun Sept. 11, 2015, and that she suspected Fambro of having stolen it from her that same day and confronted him about it.

Prosecutors said the handgun the woman bought from the pawn shop Sept. 11 is the one that was recovered from the river.

Fambro is charged with aggravated murder, aggravated robbery and being a felon in possession of a firearm in Hunter’s death.