SPRINGFIELD — As the prosecution and defense made closing arguments in the first-degree murder trial of Westfield’s Brian Fanion, each suggested to the jury two different scenarios of what happened on May 8, 2018, in the minutes before Amy Fanion was fatally shot.

The prosecution, led by Hampden County Assistant District Attorney Mary Sandstrom, argued that just a few minutes after noon on that day, the former Westfield police detective stood behind his wife, pointed his department-issue .45 caliber handgun at her head while she was sitting at their dining room table eating a sandwich, and pulled the trigger.

The fatal shot was the culmination of weeks of planning by the former Westfield police detective to have the freedom to start a new life with a woman he had fallen in love with without having to divorce his wife and split the pension he earned serving as a police officer for 34 years, Sandstrom suggested on March 20 in Superior Court.

Brian Fanion’s defense attorney Jeffrey Brown offered the jury an alternative version of those minutes before the shooting: Amy Fanion “snapped” over an ongoing argument the couple was having about their plans once her husband retired, picked up her husband’s gun, raised it to her head, said “you don’t want, or need, me anymore,” and pulled the trigger.

Sandstrom methodically explained how the evidence introduced at the three-week trial demonstrated Brian Fanion’s motivation to murder his wife, who was 51 at the time.

She pointed to the Pittsfield woman Brian Fanion, 59, professed his love to, as revealed in thousands of text messages the two exchanged. And that during a wake only the day after his wife was shot, they kissed in the basement of his father’s home – the woman testified it was a French kiss.

She pointed to internet searches he made in the weeks prior to the shooting, including one on the morning of May 8, 2018, when he pulled up a page from the State Police Crime Laboratory’s Forensic Testing Sections, which details the type of evidence collected at crime scenes, including gunshot residue.

And Sandstrom suggested that the lack of gunshot residue like soot, stippling, or burnt hair around Amy Fanion’s wound on the right side of her head just above her right ear, clearly demonstrated that she was shot from over a foot away.

She also asked the jury to consider that though many witnesses testified for the commonwealth and defense that Amy Fanion could become angry, they all said she had never threatened to harm herself.

Sandstrom also pointed out that two witnesses testified to having discussions with Amy Fanion about suicide. Her daughter, Victoria Fanion, said her mother told her it was selfish and only hurt those left behind.

Brown, who offered his closing argument before Sandstrom, focused on the theory that Amy Fanion snapped, and pointed to testimony from the Fanions’ son and daughter about their mother’s temper. Both testified that Amy Fanion, while appearing reserved in public, had a raging temper when angry around family members.

Brown argued that Amy Fanion was provoked to shooting herself because of the argument she was having with her husband about their lives after he retired in July 2018.

Pointing to witness testimony, Brown said Amy Fanion loved their home on North Road in the Wyben community of Westfield and was angry Brian Fanion wanted to sell it when he retired and travel west; and that she was angry her husband told her he didn’t want a new dog once their beloved dog died.

That may not be a “big deal” to most people, but for Amy Fanion, Brown suggested, it was too much that she could bear and compelled to act out.

He also reminded the jury that several expert witnesses testified that just because there was no evidence typically associated with a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head – soot, stippling, burnt hair, or a star-shaped torn skin pattern – that didn’t mean she didn’t commit suicide.

Specifically, Brown pointed to the testimony of experts in blood pattern analysis and forensics that Amy Fanion’s thick hair, parted on her left with a significant portion draped over her right ear, could have masked gunshot residues.

But for Sandstrom, there couldn’t have been any gunshot wound evidence – Amy Fanion was murdered by her husband.

As The Pennysaver went to press, the question of whether Amy Fanion snapped, or Brian Fanion concocted an elaborate scheme to murder his wife, is in the hands of the jury. The jury must reach a unanimous verdict to convict on first-degree murder, convict on second-degree murder, or find Brian Fanion not guilty.

Update: On March 22, the jury returned a verdict of guilty and Brian Fanion was sentenced to life in prison. For a complete story, see The Westfield News on March 23 or the March 30 edition of The Pennysaver.