White Female, age 51, Teresa I. Zimmerman of Burns, Wyoming, died on July 20, 2014, from a single shotgun wound inside the couple's home at 116 S. Wyoming Avenue in Burns. Deputies responded Sunday night and found Teresa I. Zimmerman deceased; her husband, 61-year-old Ronald Thomas Zimmerman, was detained at the scene and booked on suspicion of second-degree murder.
According to investigators and prosecutors, Ronald Thomas Zimmerman told deputies he shot Teresa I.
Zimmerman in the face with a 12-gauge shotgun, with accounts attributing the act to anger because she was yelling at their grandchildren; authorities also reported that he called 911 to report the shooting.
In the ensuing criminal case, Ronald Thomas Zimmerman initially pleaded not guilty in October 2014 to second-degree murder. A jury trial began in late May 2015, and he was found guilty of second-degree murder.
On September 18, 2015, he was sentenced to a term of 45 years to life in the Wyoming state penitentiary.
Less than a month after sentencing, he was found unresponsive at the Laramie County jail and was suspected to have died by suicide while in custody.
