Jury hands up indictments in ’79, ’08 Trumbull slayings

By Ed Runyan

WARREN — A 25-year-old city man faces a possible life prison sentence in the July 17 death of a 29-year-old Warren man, while a similar fate could await a 55-year-old Arizona man charged with a 1979 Warren homicide.

A Trumbull County grand jury on Tuesday indicted Beau A. Palmer, 25, of Clermont Avenue Northeast, on a murder charge and three other crimes with the death of Clint Zimmerman, who was found dead in a chair in his living room. He had been shot in the chest at 312 Logan Ave. N.E.

In addition to murder, the grand jury indicted Palmer on charges of improperly firing at or into a home from a motor vehicle, being a felon in possession of a firearm and tampering with evidence.

The murder and improper-discharge indictments include specifications that Palmer committed the offenses while using a firearm, which could add three or five years to any potential prison sentence.

The murder charge carries a possible prison sentence of 15 years to life.

Authorities said Zimmerman was standing in the doorway to the house when he was hit by gunfire. Palmer’s indictment says he fired the fatal shot from inside a car.

The case went unsolved until Warren Detective Michael Krafcik pieced together information that led to Palmer’s arrest, said Chris Becker, an assistant county prosecutor.

Palmer has been in the county jail since Dec. 10 without eligibility to make bond. He will be arraigned at 9 a.m. Monday before Judge Peter Kontos of common pleas court.

In February 2006, Palmer was sentenced to 2 1‚Ñ2 years in prison for failure to comply with the order of a police officer, tampering with evidence, carrying a concealed weapon, improperly handling a firearm in a motor vehicle and being a felon in possession of a firearm.

He also was sentenced to six months in prison in 2005 on a charge of breaking and entering.

The victim, who was Zimmerman, also was convicted of carrying a concealed weapon and improperly handling firearms in a motor vehicle in 2007. He received probation.

The grand jury also indicted Ronald Stahlman, 56, on a murder charge. He could also face a life prison sentence. Authorities located him in Payson, Ariz., on Dec. 9 after he spent 29 years eluding capture.

Stahlman fled Trumbull County after authorities issued an arrest warrant accusing him of fatally stabbing Bernard Williamson on a Warren street corner April 29, 1979.

Stahlman, who is still in Arizona awaiting extradition to Ohio, was arrested at his Arizona home Dec. 9. He lived there after starting a new life and using a fake name.

Police say Stahlman was a member of the Outlaws Motorcycle Club when he and others assaulted Williamson, 18, who lived on Karl Avenue Southwest, Warren Township. Williamson was found dead with nine stab wounds to the chest and stomach in the intersection at Main Avenue and Fulton Street Southwest.

If convicted of killing Williamson, Stahlman could get 15 years to life in prison.

runyan@vindy.com