43
“Big Shot” Fambro convicted on all charges in murder of woman in Warren motel
By Ed Runyan
WARREN
The jury deliberated only one hour Friday before finding William “Big Shot” Fambro guilty of killing Teresa Hunter last Oct. 14 at the Riverview Motel on Parkman Road Northwest.
The jury also found him guilty of aggravated robbery and being a felon in possession of a firearm. He will be sentenced at 1:30 p.m. Tuesday and could get life in prison without eligibility of parole; or life in prison with parole eligibility after 23, 28 or 33 years. The aggravated robbery could add more time.
Freddie Washington, Hunter’s brother, said Fambro’s conviction is “probably the best news I’ve heard in a long time.” He said his children call Fambro “the demon Big Shot” when they see him on the television news.
“I told them God will take care of him, and he did,” Washington said. He now raises his sister’s two children.
Tresca Washington, Teresa’s sister, said Fambro “deserves everything that’s about to happen to him,” including life in prison with no chance at parole. “He’s an animal, and he deserves to be in a cage.”
His trial took a bizarre turn Thursday when Fambro took the witness stand, telling the jury he shot Hunter in self-defense because she became angry at him over his recent marriage.
Fambro had never told police this story, having spoken only briefly to a Warren police detective Oct. 16 before asking to have an attorney.
Fambro, 44, of Warren, said Hunter, 35, of Warren, hit him in the head with a “weapon,” and he “grabbed her arm, wrist area” and took a gun from her, then shot multiple times at her as he was backing away, until the gun ran out of ammunition.
Fambro testified in the courtroom of Judge Ronald Rice of Trumbull County Common Pleas Court that he has been 100 percent blind since having surgery for a tumor 17 years ago.
Fambro said he heard gurgling coming from Hunter that lasted about 15 to 20 seconds after the gunfire stopped.
Fambro and Hunter were living together in an apartment on Lodwick Street Northwest at the time and had been romantically involved earlier in 2015, Fambro said during his testimony.
When prompted by David Rouzzo, one of his defense attorneys, Fambro said he shot Hunter because he was “very scared” and thought Hunter would kill him because she was “shouting and cussing” at him.
Chris Becker, an assistant Trumbull County prosecutor, said he can only recall a few defendants taking the stand in their criminal case in his 16 years in Trumbull County. Becker said he’ll ask for life with no parole because of Fambro having been convicted of previous felonies.
He was sentenced to five to 15 years in prison in 1995 after being convicted of burglary and felonious assault for separate incidents in August and October 1994.
The burglary involved trespassing into the Southern Boulevard apartment of a man. The felonious assault involved a knife attack on a woman, according to court documents.
Fambro told jurors he got the name “Big Shot” because he had an uncle from Warren with the same first and last name who was only four years older than him, and someone once told his mother that she thought her baby would some day be a “big shot.”