Staff photo / Ed Runyan John Zanolli, 62, listens as one of his defense attorneys, Sharay Lewis, told Trumbull County Common Pleas Court Judge Sean O’Brien that Zanolli suffers from severe mental illness. O’Brien sentenced John Zanolli to life in prison without the possibility of parole on Wednesday. A jury found Zanolli guilty of aggravated murder and abuse of a corpse in the shooting death of his sister in their Masury home in February 2025.

WARREN — Trumbull County Common Pleas Court Judge Sean O’Brien sentenced John Zanolli, 62, of Masury, to life in prison without the possibility of parole Wednesday after a jury found Zanolli guilty of aggravated murder and abuse of a corpse.

With its verdict, the jury found that John Zanolli acted with prior calculation and design when he shot his sister Janice Zanolli, 65, two times in the home they shared on Third Street in Masury, which is a specific area of Brookfield Township, on Feb. 26, 2025.

John Zanolli could have gotten a sentence of between 20 years and 30 years to life, but O’Brien said John Zanolli deserved the more severe punishment. John Zanolli sat in a wheelchair as he did during his trial last month. He did not make a statement and did not show much emotion, just watched and listened, sometimes nodding his head yes.

LIFELONG FRIEND OF VICTIM

His family members — who also are family members of his victim — also did not speak prior to sentencing, but Janice’s lifelong friend, Paula Coon, told O’Brien that Janice Zanolli was not the type of person who would have said the things attributed to her during the trial.

“Jan’s family and friends sat in the courtroom and listened to Jan being described as a screaming, confrontational woman with no compassion. Jan was none of those things,” Coon said.

“Anyone who knew her would tell you she was quiet, kind, a little shy, compassionate, helpful and thoughtful. Jan was the kind of person who came home from Virginia when my mom died to be with my family and turned around six months later and did it again when I lost my father,” she said.

“Jan was the kind of friend when I told her my granddaughter was getting ready to go to college and didn’t want to go too far from home, Jan researched all of the colleges not too far away. Jan did things like this for her family and friends.

“She helped her brother John with resumes, helped him fill out applications online for jobs and helped him apply for medical assistance. Jan did these things because she knew eventually they were going to have to sell the house. Jan was already looking for a place. And John should have as well,” she said.

“I don’t think there is anything Jan wouldn’t do for her family and friends,” Coon said.

During the trial, defense attorney Sharay Lewis told jurors that they would learn that Janice spoke harshly about John with another sibling, calling John a “loser” and demanding that he get out of the house because she was going to sell it as executrix of their parents’ estate.

Lewis said John lived in the house about 25 years; Janice had lived there about 10 years.

John Zanolli gave a statement to police after his sister’s body was found three days after she was shot to death in her bedroom. In the statement, he admitted that he killed her but said it was part of a murder-suicide pact between him and his sister, that she asked him to kill her because she couldn’t do it. John Zanolli said he went to her room Feb. 26, 2025, while she was reading a book, and told her “It’s time. And she said ‘No. No. No.’ I said it’s time. Then she ducked her head, and that is when I shot her,” John said.

He shot her a second time, shut the door to her bedroom and left, he said.

JUROR

But after the jury found John guilty of aggravated murder and abuse of a corpse after deliberating about 90 minutes, a juror said in an interview with the newspaper that the jury did not believe that there was ever a murder-suicide pact.

Once they decided that, they also concluded that John had killed his sister over her decision as executor of her parents’ estate to sell the house, which had belonged to their parents, the juror said.

The only decision left was to decide if John Zanolli was guilty of murder or aggravated murder, the juror said.

In remarks to the judge Wednesday, Lewis said John Zanolli had never had a criminal offense before this case and that John Zanolli killed his sister as a result of “untreated mental illness.”

She said evidence of this was family remarks about John Zanolli spending a lot of time confined to his room and Facebook messages from the victim that John Zanolli slept a lot.

Lewis said John Zanolli had deteriorating health because of diabetes, which resulted in his leg being amputated.

She asked O’Brien to give Zanolli a sentence that would allow him to leave prison at some point.

JUDGE

O’Brien responded and then pointed out that Zanolli was evaluated and found not to have any mental disability or defect, and nothing during the trial suggested any mental health issues to suggest that any “leniency” was warranted.

O’Brien also noted that John Zanolli’s attempt to suggest that he and his sister had a suicide pact was not convincing because “none of the evidence indicated that this was a result of any type of suicide pact.”

He added, “Everything I’ve heard during trial and even today that the victim in the case was a kind-hearted person … and she even tried to take care of him and, in fact, tried to help him get jobs, everything a sister should do.”

O’Brien said he found — and the jury found — that he shot her in cold blood, that she was in a defensive position and by his own statement, she said ‘No, don’t do that.’ And he had a gun, shot and killed her. And then walked up and shot her (again).”

O’Brien said he was “appalled by those actions and feels that any sentence less than giving the defendant the maximum demeans the seriousness of the offenses.”

He noted that John Zanolli did nothing about his sister being dead in her bedroom for three days and that it would have been longer before she was found if another brother had not come over and found her. And he said John Zanolli “showed no remorse.”