Staff photo / Ed Runyan John Zanolli, 52, of Masury, center, is being defended in his aggravated murder trial in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court by Josh Weemnoff and Sharay Lewis, both of the Ohio Public Defender’s Office.

WARREN — Trumbull County Assistant Prosecutor Chris Becker and Assistant Ohio Public Defender Sharay Lewis seemed to agree on a lot of important facts during their opening statements in the John Zanolli aggravated murder trial Monday.

Becker told jurors that Zanolli, 52, of Third Street in Masury, killed his sister, Janice Zanolli, 65, by shooting her in her bedroom Feb. 26, 2025, in the home they had shared for about 10 years. The trial, which is being overseen by Trumbull County Common Pleas Court Judge Sean O’Brien, will resume this morning.

DEFENSE

Lewis talked about the worsening relationship between John Zanolli and his sister, him losing his job at the Circle K a week earlier, and Janice complaining about that to him and other family members, and telling John that she was going to sell the house and kick him out.

“What really pushed (John) over the edge, and Facebook messages will corroborate this, is she decides that she is going to evict him from the house.

“And you will see messages where she is telling Jeff, their younger brother, I’m tired of him. He’s a loser. I told him to get the (expletive) out. I told him to go find one of the plethora of friends you claim that you have and go stay with them because you can’t stay in this house anymore.”

She noted that John lived in the house for 25 years, and his sister had lived there 10 years.

“Neither of them have a job. John at least had a job. He was only unemployed … like a week,” Lewis said.

“What really put things over the edge is that with her being the executrix and her saying she was formally evicting him. She told him ‘Don’t be surprised if the sheriffs come knocking at the door and you’re going to be out of here.’ That is essentially what caused John to have a reaction,” Lewis said.

“There are a lot of emotions that play into this. This is already a rocky relationship. These two adult children, who lost their father, a woman who is given a position of authority and she essentially decides she doesn’t like the way her brother is living his life. She decides she wants him out of the house. And she decides he has to leave.

“It’s February. It’s the middle of winter. John doesn’t have anywhere to go. And she decides she doesn’t care where he goes.”

Lewis said jurors will hear the interview John had with Brookfield police after his sister was found dead.

“He does this at some time on Feb. 26 or 25, and he shuts her door, and as the state already pointed out, he stays in the house. He essentially doesn’t know what to do. He killed his sister and he didn’t have anywhere to go,” the defense attorney said.

Becker did object to some of what Lewis said, such as when she characterized Janice Zanolli as using profanity in saying John would have to leave the home.

And Lewis disagreed that John was truthful when John told Brookfield police that he killed his sister as part of a “murder suicide pact.” Lewis said, “We’re looking at a case where there is a confession. He did it. We’re not asking you to decide whether or not (John) Zanolli killed his sister.

“Essentially what we’re asking you to decide is if he planned to kill his sister. Does the evidence show there was prior calculation and design? Or does the evidence show that this was a sudden decision based on the dynamic of two adults and a threat of someone being kicked out of the house?”

PROSECUTION

Becker said in his opening statement John Zanolli told police “in a videotaped statement that you will watch here in the courtroom that it was a murder suicide. Well, it was a murder because as you can clearly see, there was no suicide.” Becker was nodding toward John Zanolli as he said this.

Becker said Zanolli’s murder charge alleges premeditation, which the murder statute calls “prior calculation and design.” John Zanolli is also charged with abuse of a corpse.

“The evidence for abuse of a corpse will show that after shooting twice … he let her lay in the bed for almost three days — from Wednesday night at 10, 11, midnight until Saturday morning at 10 o’clock when the police arrived because people could not get hold of Janice and they were concerned for her safety,” Becker said.

John’s younger brother, Jeff, and his girlfriend, Linda Dattillo, testified Monday as the first witnesses and said they discovered the body March 1, 2025, and drove to the Brookfield Police Department to alert police to what they had found.

Becker said when police arrived, they went in and heard footsteps coming from the first floor above them. They called for more officers and went inside, finding John Zanolli with a rifle under his chin. “It is the same rifle that was used, according to (John Zanolli) to kill his sister, Janice Zanolli.”

Becker said jurors will see about 30 minutes of the standoff at the house that ensued when they found John Zanolli. “They ended up tasing this defendant” and securing him and the firearm. “And you will see this defendant confess to killing his sister, Janice Zanolli.”

John Zanolli told police that he and Janice “wanted to end their lives. He made some sort of statement about Trump winning the election in November. Now mind you this is March 1, 2025. And he tells the police ‘We’re concerned about Trump winning, the whole world going to hell in a hand basket, and we didn’t want to live anymore.’ But there is some evidence that contradicts what he told police.”

Becker talked about how Janice was planning to sell the house, that Janice did not have much money and John no longer had a job.

“Janice is going to tell you through her Facebook messages she had with their brother, she was going to kick him out,” to sell the house and divide the proceeds among the five siblings.

John Zanolli told police he and his sister had discussed this “suicide pact for months,” Becker said. John Zanolli told police he “walked into (Janice’s) room with the gun and said, ‘It’s time,'” Becker said. “And the defendant told the police that Janice said ‘No, no, no, not now.’ We don’t know what Janice really said because she’s dead.”

Becker said the autopsy report shows that Janice was shot once in the shoulder, but John Zanolli “finished her off with a second shot.”

The abuse of a corpse is because after killing his sister, John Zanolli “went about his daily life.” He went to a store in Brookfield the next day and bought Pepsi and cigarettes. The next day, he went to Hubbard and bought Asian food, Becker said.

On March 1, John Zanolli told police, “I wish it would have never happened. Big mistake. I should have never did it.”

Becker said the evidence “will clearly show there was no murder-suicide pact.” In fact, “There is no evidence Janice wanted to die.”