"Big Shot" Fambro gets prison with no parole for killing woman at Warren motel

By Ed Runyan

runyan@vindy.com

WARREN

Carrie Fambro, wife of William L. “Big Shot” Fambro, 44, says she stands by her husband even though he’s going to prison for the rest of his life for killing Teresa Hunter, 35, at the Riverview Motel last October.

“I’ve supported him all the way through this,” she said just outside of the courtroom of Judge Ronald Rice of Trumbull County Common Pleas Court just after her husband was sentenced Tuesday afternoon.

Judge Rice sentenced Fambro, 44, of Warren, to life in prison without parole eligibility. He also is sentenced to three years for committing the murder with a firearm and another three years because he possessed a firearm – something he’s not allowed to do because of previous felony convictions.

Fambro lived with Teresa Hunter at the time of her murder and had been in a relationship with her for several months, said her brother, Freddie Washington, who now raises Hunter’s two children.

But Fambro had married Carrie Fambro, 45, only about a week before the Oct. 14 killing. He and Carrie had been in a relationship for about 12 years and have a daughter together, named Calise, who is 10, Carrie said.

After the hearing, Washington said he’s happy the jury saw Fambro’s testimony at the end of the trial Thursday for what it was – a big lie.

“A blind man could have seen through the lies. It was a blind man who told the lies,” Washington said. Fambro testified that he’s been 100 percent blind for about 17 years – since having surgery for a tumor in his head.

Witnesses, however, disputed that claim.

He’s been called Big Shot since birth because he has an uncle four years older than him with the same first and last name, Fambro testified. A family member joked to his pregnant mother that William would be a “big shot” when he grew up.

Neither William Fambro nor any of Hunter’s family members spoke at the hearing, leaving Judge Rice to summarize the facts that emerged during the five-day trial.

“Mr. Fambro, you shot an innocent young victim six times and left her alone in that room to die, then tried to cover up the crimes by stealing a car, fleeing the scene and disposing of the murder weapon – and lying to the authorities that you were ever at the crime scene.

“You did everything you could to avoid the long arm of the law, but unfortunately for you and fortunately for the good people of Trumbull County and the victim, we have Detective [Wayne] Mackey doing some good police work, which brought you to this courtroom to answer for your crimes.”

Judge Rice called Fambro’s testimony that he killed Hunter in self-defense because she attacked him with a gun “unbelievable, unrealistic and unsubstantiated.”

The judge said the jury “saw through your testimony and rendered a just and true verdict” Friday of guilty of aggravated murder, aggravated robbery and being a felon in possession of a firearm.

Judge Rice also provided listeners with Fambro’s 10 previous convictions: assault in 1993; domestic violence, telephone harassment, aggravated burglary, felonious assault, intimidation of a crime victim, menacing, domestic violence and assault, all in 1994; and domestic violence in 2008. He spent about 11 years in prison for the felonious assault and aggravated burglary. “He has a past, but I love him,” Carrie Fambro said, adding that none of his crimes occurred while she and Fambro were together. However, a Warren police report and Warren Municipal Court records indicate he was convicted of domestic violence against Carrie Fambro in 2008 when her name was Carrie McGhee. He also was charged with another domestic-violence charge involving her in 2013, but that charge was dismissed when McGhee failed to appear in court.

Chris Becker, assistant county prosecutor, said after the sentencing of Fambro: “Now he can be a big shot in prison.”