Use this search box to find articles that have run in our newspapers over the last several years.
Date: 3/8/2023
SPRINGFIELD – As the first-degree murder trial of the former Westfield police detective accused of killing his wife continued for a second week in Hampden County Superior Court, the competing prosecution and defense theories of what happened in the moments just before the shooting became clearer.
The commonwealth is pointing to the lack of gunshot residue evidence found during the autopsy of Amy Fanion’s fatal head wound as one of the primary factors in its theory that her husband Brian Fanion shot her on May 8, 2018, over an ongoing dispute between the couple over his planned retirement in July 2018 from the Westfield Police Department after 34 years, and that he was in a relationship with another woman.
The defense, however, offered an alternative theory to the jury that Amy Fanion committed suicide and her thick hair and blood masked the gunshot residue, and that she had a temper that virtually no one who knew her knew about, except her husband.
Brian Fanion, 59, was charged in November 2019 with first-degree murder for allegedly killing his wife, who was 51 at the time. He has been free on bond since February 2020 after posting a $200,000 bail. He has maintained that his wife committed suicide, which most of Amy Fanion’s brothers and sisters believe.
The prosecution, which is being led by Hampden County Assistant District Attorney Mary Sandstrom, called as witnesses, Feb. 27 to March 3, the current mayor of Westfield, Michael McCabe, who was Brian Fanion’s supervisor at the Westfield Police Department; former Westfield Police Chief Jim Camerato; Amy Fanion’s brother Eric Hansen, who was at the Fanions’ home moments after the shooting; the state medical examiner who performed the autopsy; and Corrine Hasty, the woman romantically involved with Brian Fanion prior to the shooting.
When Hasty testified, Brian Fanion’s defense attorney Jeffrey Brown questioned her specifically about their relationship and suggested to jurors that the pair were like “teenagers in love,” to which Hasty agreed.
The two exchanged over 5,000 text messages between December 2017 and May 2018 but saw each other in person only three times before the shooting.
Under questioning by Brown, Hasty also testified that she only told Brian Fanion that her own marriage was in trouble in April 2018, which, she testified, was after deciding to end it. It was then, Hasty testified, that she had also made the decision to break off communication with Brian Fanion.
She also testified that while she had decided to divorce the man she was married to at the time — they have since divorced — Brian Fanion never suggested that she base that decision on their relationship.
When questioned by Sandstrom, Hasty also said she and Brian Fanion shared a hug and kissed only days after the shooting at Amy Fanion’s wake held at Brian Fanion’s father’s home.
When Hansen testified, he described walking up to the Fanions’ home on North Road in the Wyben community of Westfield at about noon on May 8, 2018, and hearing Brian yelling for him to come inside.
Once inside, Hansen testified Brian Fanion was kneeling next to Amy Fanion’s body holding her hands with his over her stomach, almost like he was praying.
His brother-in-law, Hansen testified, told him Amy had shot herself and that he was extremely distraught. So upset, he testified, he moved the .45 caliber semi-automatic handgun used in the shooting because he was concerned Brian Fanion may have had thoughts of suicide.
Sandstrom, attempting to have the jury get an understanding of Amy Fanion’s state of mind on the day of the shooting, asked Hansen him about her disposition.
Hansen, who believes his sister committed suicide, said she appeared happy about it being sunny outside that day. He spoke to her an hour before the shooting.
McCabe was questioned by Sandstrom about the chaotic scene at the Fanions’ home after he arrived there about 20 minutes after the shooting.
When questioned by Brown, McCabe testified that Brian Fanion was extremely upset and told him, through tears, “She was [expletive] angry … she has a [expletive] temper.”
McCabe also testified that Brian Fanion had only spoken to him once in the nearly 40 years they’ve known each other about Amy Fanion’s temper: It was in either 2004 or 2005, at a training conference they attended in Florida, after Brian Fanion had just gotten off a phone call with Amy.
The former senior captain of Westfield’s detective bureau, McCabe also testified that despite knowing the Fanions’ home was a crime scene, he allowed Brian Fanion to wash his hands before State Police arrived to take over the investigation.
McCabe also acknowledged, when questioned by Brown, he overheard Brian Fanion telling his son he and Amy had been arguing for several days before the shooting and saw him gesture with his right hand indicating she had committed suicide, pointing his fingers at his head.
Camerota, when testifying, said he also went to the Fanions’ home less than an hour after the shooting. He also described Brian Fanion as extremely upset.
He also testified that Brian Fanion told him about the love affair two months after the shooting and that he was worried the state was going to “knock on his door and arrest him” because of questions investigators had asked him about the lack of stippling and gunshot residue found in the gunshot wound.
Camerota confirmed, under questioning by Sandstrom, that Brian Fanion had told him that he had spent hours after the shooting researching gunshot residue.
That gunshot wound evidence was a primary topic when Brown and Sandstrom questioned Dr. Robert Welton, the deputy chief medical examiner for the state, who performed the autopsy on Amy Fanion’s body.
Welton, under questioning by Sandstrom, said during his examination of the gunshot wound on the right side of Amy Fanion’s head that he couldn’t see any soot, gunshot residue, stippling, burned hair, or a stellate (star-shaped) pattern that would have resulted from a close-contact gunshot.
Sandstrom, during her opening statement to the jury, had said the state believes the gun was fired from an estimated distance of 18 inches from Amy Fanion’s head.
However, under questioning by Brown, Welton admitted that Amy Fanion’s thick hair could have served as an “intermediate target” between the muzzle blast and when the bullet penetrated her skull, which could dissipate the residues, stippling and stellate patterns typically found with a close-contact gunshot typically found in suicides.
Welton also testified, when questioned by Brown, that when examining the exit wound, on Amy Fanion’s upper left cheek, he discovered strands of her hair that had traveled along the path of the bullet.