John Zanolli
Finding that any sentence less than the maximum would be “demeaning,” Trumbull County Common Pleas Court Judge Sean O’Brien has ordered that John Zanolli spend the rest of his life in prison without the possibility of parole.
“What he did that day was inconceivable,” O’Brien said April 29.
Zanolli, 62, was found guilty by a jury March 25 of aggravated murder with a firearm specification and abuse of a corpse in the Feb. 26, 2025, shooting death of his sister, Janice Zanolli, 65, in the home they shared in Masury.
Zanolli told police he killed her as part of a murder-suicide pact in which he failed to carry out the suicide. The siblings were upset by the election of President Donald Trump, Zanolli said.
He said he entered her room and told her it was time. She protested but he fired one shot with a .22-caliber rifle into her head. She was not killed instantly so he fired again. He closed the door to her bedroom and left.
Zanolli went on with his life, ordering food from a Hubbard restaurant and buying cigarettes and pop from a Brookfield convenience store.
“The court is appalled by these actions,” O’Brien said, concluding that they show Zanolli had no remorse.
Jeff Zanolli, another brother, and his girlfriend, Linda Datillo, went to the Masury home on March 1, 2025, to check on Janice after she failed to respond to contacts from family members or a friend. They found her in her bed with blood on her and the bed, left the home and contacted authorities.
Brookfield police found John in his room with the rifle to his head. They were able to subdue him after about 30 minutes when he took his finger off the trigger momentarily.
The defense abandoned the suicide pact story at trial, unsuccessfully arguing that the killing was spontaneous and not premeditated, an element of aggravated murder.
Addressing the Zanolli family, O’Brien said that they now have lost two members.
“My deepest regret for the situation,” he said.
