Brian Fanion Trial: Affair, Wound Forensics, and Verdict

The Brian Fanion trial ended on March 21, 2023, when a Hampden Superior Court jury found the former Westfield, Massachusetts police detective guilty of first-degree murder in the May 8, 2018 shooting death of his wife, Amy Fanion. Judge Jane Mulqueen sentenced him the next day to life in prison without the possibility of parole, the mandatory sentence under Massachusetts law. Prosecutors persuaded the jury that Fanion shot Amy inside their farmhouse and staged the scene to look like a suicide, using forensic evidence, an extramarital affair, and a trail of internet searches to unwind his account.¹

The Story Fanion Told Investigators

Fanion called 911 on the afternoon of May 8, 2018 to report that Amy, 51, had shot herself at their home at 9 North Road in Westfield. In a recorded statement to Massachusetts State Police Detective Brendan O’Toole, he said he had come home for lunch, taken his Smith & Wesson M&P .45 duty weapon out of its holster, and placed it on a dining room hutch before going to the bathroom. When he came out, he said, Amy was standing near the hutch, told him something like “I guess you don’t want me around,” and raised the gun to the right side of her head. He said he was four to five feet away when the gun “just exploded.”²

First responders initially treated the death as a suicide. The medical examiner’s autopsy the next day identified the cause of death as a gunshot wound but left the manner of death undetermined.³

The Forensic Fight Over the Wound

The central dispute at trial was whether Amy’s gunshot wound could have been self-inflicted. Prosecutors pointed to the absence of gunshot residue, soot, singed hair, stippling, or a stellate tissue pattern near the wound, all indicators a firearms examiner would expect on a close-contact shot.⁴ State Police Sergeant Robert Patterson testified that the bullet’s trajectory, entering above the right ear and exiting below the left eye, was unusual for a self-inflicted wound. Dr. Robert Welton, the medical examiner, testified that the manner of death was “inconclusive” from the physical evidence alone.

Detective John Schrijn, a firearms expert, provided the prosecution’s most direct forensic conclusion. He testified that the wound was made from a distance of “over 18 inches without anything intervening,” making a self-inflicted shot “practically impossible.”⁵ To illustrate the point, Schrijn tested 20 women of similar height to Amy, asking them to hold a dummy weapon at the trajectory of the fatal shot. Using an index finger, the maximum reach was 5 inches; using a thumb, 15.5 inches. Both fell well short of 18.

Both Fanions had gunshot residue on their hands, but investigators noted Brian was holding Amy’s hand when responders arrived, which could account for transfer. Partial fingerprints on the weapon could not be identified, and Amy’s toxicology came back clean.⁶

The Affair and the Prosecution’s Motive

Assistant District Attorney Mary Sandstrom told the jury Fanion killed Amy because he wanted a life with another woman but felt he could not afford, socially or financially, to divorce. She argued he stood to lose half his police pension and told jurors he “was trapped and was forced to kill his wife.”⁷

The other woman was Corrine Knowles, a 48-year-old wife and church choir member who later remarried and testified as Corrine Hasty. She met Fanion in November 2017 on a church mission trip to Mexico, and by April 2018 the relationship was physical. Between December 2017 and May 2018, they exchanged 2,542 text messages, many of them deleted and later recovered from Fanion’s phone.⁸ They exchanged 72 messages the day before Amy died. On the morning of the shooting, Knowles texted, “When can I hold you again?????” Fanion replied, “not soon enough.”²

Hasty testified about the relationship and Fanion’s stated fear that Amy would “take him for everything that he’s got” in a divorce. On cross, she acknowledged that when she ended things in the summer of 2018, Fanion did not resist or say anything suggesting he had killed Amy for her sake.

The Internet Searches

On April 27, 2018, eleven days before Amy died, Fanion searched “gsr testing” on his work computer and visited five related pages between 9:22 a.m. and 9:38 a.m., including an article titled “Gunshot Residue Collection: The Decisions that Make or Break a Case” and a YouTube news report on what gunshot residue tests reveal.⁹ Sandstrom told the jury no one at the Westfield Police Department performs gunshot residue testing, and Fanion had no active case that would have required the research.

Other searches on his devices concerned the effect of divorce on a pension, household poisons, and additional videos on gunshot residue.¹⁰ On the morning of May 8, the day Amy was killed, Fanion searched for Massachusetts medical examiner offices and viewed a page describing the units within the State Police forensics section.

Anna Hansen’s Testimony

Anna Hansen, one of Amy’s sisters, gave some of the trial’s most striking testimony. She told the jury that about two weeks after Amy’s death, Brian called her to the house and confessed he had fallen in love with another woman. She said he also told her he had searched online for “how to make a murder look like a suicide,” claiming Amy had asked the question while watching a CSI-type show. Anna pushed back on that explanation, testifying that Amy preferred “sappy, romance, happily-ever-after stories.” She also said Fanion grabbed her and kissed her “really hard on the lips” during the same visit.¹¹

The Defense’s Case

Defense attorney Jeffrey Brown argued that Amy died by suicide, telling the jury she suffered from severe anxiety and anger issues. He attacked the prosecution’s case as incomplete, said the science did not prove Brian fired the weapon, and pointed to his client’s character.¹²

Brown offered innocent explanations for the searches. He said queries about household poisons related to safety concerns in the couple’s 200-year-old home ahead of a niece’s visit, and that searches about deleting frequently contacted phone numbers were part of a routine wipe before Fanion got a new phone. He also emphasized that investigators never found the exact phrase “how to make a murder look like a suicide” on Fanion’s devices, challenging Anna Hansen’s account.⁹

The defense’s key expert was crime scene analyst Alexander Jason. Jason testified that the missing stippling was explained by Amy’s dense, thick hair, which he said acted as a filter blocking residue from reaching her skin. He demonstrated the theory by firing a .45 caliber round through a mound of hair backed by a ballistic skin simulant, then firing again at the same distance without hair. The hair-covered shot produced a cleaner wound.¹³ The prosecution had not independently tested Amy’s hair for residue, and the defense pressed that gap.

Amy’s Family Split

The trial had an unusual feature: most of the victim’s family supported the defendant. On July 18, 2018, more than a dozen of Amy’s relatives, including her parents and siblings, sent a letter to the Hampden District Attorney’s office expressing “complete and unfailing support” for Brian and stating they were “certain Amy took her own life on May 8, 2018.” The letter asked prosecutors not to file charges.¹⁴

Only two of Amy’s sisters, Anna Hansen and Mary Hansen, stood with the prosecution at trial. Anna testified that she lost her “best friends” in the family because she cooperated with police.¹⁵ Brian and Amy’s two adult children also did not believe their father had killed her.¹⁶

Verdict, Sentence, and Appeal

The jury deliberated for two days before returning its guilty verdict on March 21, 2023. Judge Mulqueen imposed the mandatory sentence of life without parole the next day. Fanion was observed wearing his wedding ring at sentencing.⁷ Hampden District Attorney Anthony Gulluni called Fanion’s conduct “calculating and shockingly cruel” and said, “This result illustrates that no matter your position or power, justice is blind.”¹

Fanion’s conviction is under appeal. No outcome in the appellate proceedings has been publicly reported.²

1
WWLP. Verdict Reached in Murder Trial of Former Westfield Detective Brian Fanion
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CBS News. Brian Fanion Amy Fanion Westfield Massachusetts Murder Trial 48 Hours
3
Hampden District Attorney’s Office. Brian Fanion Arraigned on First-Degree Murder in Connection With Wife’s Death
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MassLive. Lawyers Spar Over Gunshot Wound Evidence in Brian Fanion Murder Trial
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MassLive. Firearms Expert Says Fanion Gun Residue, Shot Angle Don’t Match Suicide
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WWLP. Former Westfield Detective Brian Fanion Murder Investigation to Air on A&E’s Killer Cases
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MassLive. A&E’s Killer Cases to Spotlight Westfield Cop Brian Fanion Case
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MassLive. Accused Killer’s Ex-Girlfriend Testifies in First-Degree Murder Trial
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CBS News. Brian Fanion Detective Searches Gunshot Residue Testing Before Wife Killed
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WWLP. Murder Trial of Former Westfield Detective Brian Fanion to Begin Monday
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MassLive. Dream Marriage Ended in Murder or Suicide, Witness Testifies at Murder Trial
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Western Mass News. Closing Arguments Heard at Trial of Retired Westfield Police Officer
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Paramount Press Express. CBS News 48 Hours Press Release on Brian Fanion Episode
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MassLive. How Do You Prosecute the Unlikeliest Murderer
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MassLive. Defense Questions Cast Doubt on Sister’s Testimony in Brian Fanion Murder Trial
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Oxygen. Brian Fanion Retired Detective Allegedly Killed Wife Amy Fanion