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[15], Prosecutors contended that the trio filled the house with natural gas and then used the spark from a microwave which could be set in advance to detonate it. Shirley and Leonard had gone on television on multiple occasions following the blast to state their innocence, and to ask for privacy. Says Sen. Tom. Shirley says he was paying Monserrate $1,000 a month in child support and mortgage payments. At one point you replaced the thermostat." [19] Judge Shelia Carlisle rejected the proposal, noting that no Indiana law authorizes the use of concurrent jury trials. Shirley's sentencing started Monday morning at 9 a.m. She faces 20 to 50 years in prison for two counts conspiracy to commit arson. Lisa Marie Presley's daughter Riley Keough wears a Graceland sweater as she . We again offer our condolences to the families of Dion and Jennifer Longworth and to those who suffered injury and loss. Get caught up on the first two chapters here:Chapter I: The Night the Sky Caught Fire|Chapter II: The $4 Million Arson Plot. Shirley said she would come back immediately, but they told her there was no house to come back to. She still wiped under her eyes with a tissue several times while she was on the stand. The sentence accounts for time served and good time credit. To see the faces of the neighborhood people and the sense of relief and calmness when the verdicts came in was a good thing, Garza said. Jeffrey Wager and IMPD investigators, Lt. Mario Garza and IFD investigators, agents of the Federal ATF, and our trial team for their commitment and perseverance to bring justice for the Richmond Hill residents.. I told them I dont even want to be a part of this, Shirley testified as telling the Leonards. But the majority supported us.. Deputy Prosecutor DeniseRobinson has said she will argue for 50 when the time comes. The meeting was difficult for me because I couldnt ethically tell them everything, Robinson said. The truth is, I was scared.. No one else was within earshot, so far as she knew. Out of fear that a Marion County jury would be too tainted by extensive media coverage of the case, the trial had been moved to South Bend, Indiana. Monserrate Shirley spent the entire day on the stand Wednesday, and the anticipation of her testimony was evident in courtroom attendance. The couple says their neighbor Bob Leonard was led away for questioning. If Monserrate Shirley keeps up her part of the agreement, a judge will decide her sentence after all the Richmond Hill explosiontrials have been completed. On December 21, 2012, Monserrate Shirley, Mark Leonard, and his brother Bob Leonard were charged with 2 counts of felony murder and . And I wanted to be able to tell them everything., TRANSCRIPT | The full testimony of Monserrate Shirley. You can't do anything," he said. [21] Mark Leonard was granted a change of venue and was tried in South Bend. They decided to cut a piece of cardboard to block off the chimney path. . I care about people. Not until the following morning, when I went from this job to another job, did I get a text from a friend who thought it might be my house. And I understand it, because of their feelings about her. [5], Monserrate "Moncy" Shirley, a nurse, owned the home at the center of the explosion. [16][17] The alleged motive for the arson was to collect insurance money to ease financial strain. Prosecutors ended by asking Shirley if the Longworths or any of her other neighbors deserved what happened. When she told him, Holts said, "Between Mark and Gary, they're going to blow up the whole neighborhood.". PREVIOUS|Timeline of events|Gallery: The Richmond Hill Explosion|Where were you at 11:11 PM? Among the "no" votes, inexplicably: political dancer Hiram Monserrate. She grabbed a few pictures, including the canvas portrait of her daughterat age 5 that hung above the fireplace. Mark Leonards trial at the St. Joseph County Courthouse was eventful before it even started. Leonards death doesnt change the fact that Jennifer and Dion died, Buxton said. Shirley says he and Monserrate married on July 17, 1993. Shirley said that she was at a casino bar at the time of the explosion, and her boyfriend and daughter -- who also live with her -- weren't home either. Somebody knew that I was out of town. Denise Robinson, the Marion County Prosecutor on the case, told the court she rarely asks for the maximum sentence. The original posters source was a little bit of a weird little coincidence, but the name was still alive and well. Investigators have ruled out a natural gas leak from the home's underground pipelines, the Star reported, and they are now focusing on whether there may have been a leak from one of the gas appliances inside three homes that were obliterated in the explosion. He says he and Monserrate never boarded the cat when they were married. Robinson has said she will argue for 50 when the time comes. This is an archived article and the information in the article may be outdated. Although the jury would eventually hear testimony and an audio recording of Leonard talking to an undercover ATF agent posing as a hitman (and Leonard would eventually get an extra 50 years in prison for it), having that information before the trial even began would have been extremely prejudicial against him. Jeff Wager, the lead homicide investigator in the case, talks about the surveillance and arrests of Mark Leonard and Monserrate Shirley: It was at a meeting with prosecutors in early 2015 that Richmond Hill residents learned of the plea deal being worked out with their former neighbor, Monserrate Shirley. He was sentenced in August to two life sentences, along with 75 years in prison. And I think when the motivation is that, what we have is a person who is the worst of the worst.. For one thing, the trial team deputy prosecutors Denise Robinson and Mark Hollingsworth, plus two junior deputies would have to wade through an entire subdivision-worth of evidence to build, arguably, the largest criminal prosecution in Indiana history. At the center of the case, Mark Leonard, a womanizer with gambling debts who preyed on divorcees, hatched an arson plot for money with his girlfriend, Monserrate Shirley. One small job. That's whatwe'll be asking the jury to consider.". Federal grand jury indicts man on hate crime charges after he allegedly shot 2 Jewishmen in Los Angelesin February, Pot vote has Oklahoma hungry to rake in green from Texas, Indonesia fuel depot fire kills 18, over dozen missing, Fishers firefighters assist car flipped NB over I-69. Investigators quickly honed in on the home's owner, Monserrate Shirley, her boyfriend Mark Leonard and his brother, Bob Leonard Jr., as the primary suspects. So in the end there were a couple of people who were opposed to it, and I respected that. An Indianapolis woman said she asked her then-boyfriend's half-brother what he had done when she learned the fire they planned to ignite using natural gas had Everything's under control.". There have been days with only two people in the audience other than media, but there were more than 30 Wednesday. Shirley testified Leonard asked to see the insurance policy on the home within a few weeks of moving in. Jordan Fischer is the senior digital reporter for RTV6. Below, former IMPD Det. . It would have shortened the trial a week. Shirley said she has a condition with her tear ducts that makes her unable to produce tears, so people dont think Im crying for real.. Just to prepare the evidence list which eventually numbered more than 2,000 items Robinson said the entire four-person team worked 24 hours straight. "I want $300,000. Including journalists, it was closer to four dozen. He told her his friend Glenn Holts had done the same at his own house with help from Gary Thompson, who worked for Leonard at the time. The Richmond Hill neighbors had been waiting long enough without a trial. Worried that jurors might easily convict Leonard of the lesser charges against him, but not the larger ones that carried the life without parole sentence prosecutors were asking for, Robinson built her closing argument from the bottom up. Wednesday in court, Shirley said that at the July 4th pool party, she called lighting the house on fire crazy. Shirley stated that her daughter had smelled gas during the week before the explosion. John did all the maintenance on the home - she never did any. Once again, she agreed to make the same three arrangements: the casino reservation, a babysitter for her daughterand boarding for Snowball. "It's like waking up to this bad dream," Shirley said, her voice cracking as tears flowed down her cheeks. Mark Leonard, the man considered the mastermind behind the 2012 Richmond Hill neighborhood explosion that killed two peopleand wounded at least adozen others, is dead. Shed said similar things in an interview with IMPD Det. Thirty-three homes were damaged so severely they were deemed unrecoverable, and had to be torn down to the foundation. "No one.". Her sister had lived in the same housing complex. After that, the fire wasn't mentioned again until the week before Halloween. Her sister had lived in the same housing complex. "I don't understand it," Shircliff said of the judge's ruling. Shirley testified in Fort Wayne at the trial of Bob Leonard, Jr. one of five people accused in the deadly 2012 Richmond Hill Explosion. He said there wouldn't be a problem because it would be a small fire so no one would get hurt, and since she had a long history with the insurance company and no criminal record, they would get the money almost immediately. Snapped: Killer Couples (known as Killer Couples from seasons 7 to 15) is an American true crime television series currently airing on the Oxygen Network.The program details couples who commit crimes together. Shirley would receive over $300,000 in insurance money for the replacement of the home as well as personal items. To the uninitiated, it seems to be a reference to a nickname used by the family of the deceased who are being called Shirley by their name. Sometimes they would go during the week while her daughterwas at school and leave in enough time to pick her back up. John Shirley, 50, of Noblesville, told The Associated Press that his daughter sent him a text message last week complaining that the furnace in the home where she lives with her mother and her. Shirley may have been the prosecution's highest profile witness, but that doesn't mean they're done. Two mental health experts testified that her childhood could have contributed to her decision to stay with Mark Leonard and go along with his plan to blow up her house for insurance money. Hed also been previously accused of insurance fraud in connection with a car accident. If your child will play baseball or softball this spring, youll need to stock up on appropriate clothing and equipment. They are charged with. He faces up to life in prison without the possibility of parole if convicted. [20] The trials started in 2015. She lived in the four-bedroom, two-and-a-half-bath home with her daughter. wishtv.com your home page, Business, Equity and Opportunities Podcast with Scott Sander. She talked about being Catholic and said it was in God's hands, but still, they should be punished.". I said OK, she said. It was never no for an answer. Shirley says they were his. It's been hard for me and my daughter. [29] He was sentenced to life in prison plus 75 years without parole on August 14, 2015. She found a house with a floorplan she liked." That becomes eight years when good time credit is applied. Bob Leonard, Monserrate Shirley, Gary Thompson and Glenn Hults also face charges in connection to the explosion. I should have been there.". Leonard went to pick up Thompson in the white van witnesses in the neighborhood have previously testified seeing in Shirley's driveway. The host family had a lot of horses, so Shirley's daughter went to play with them under the supervision of Holts' girlfriend, Sharon, whose teen . While Shirley and the Leonards had been sitting in jail, Robinson and Hollingsworth had been traveling to the ATF lab in Washington D.C. to learn about explosions and taking a crash course on natural gas. Many of the women reported that they met him on dating sites and that he soon began asking them for money. Before meeting Mark, Shirley had never been to a casino. Robinson says she didnt expect anything to change. Shirley's daughterwent with them in Leonard's Cadillac. A copy of her plea agreement was entered into evidence and handed out to each member of the jury. A tag already exists with the provided branch name. "I was at one of my part-time jobs when I got a text from my daughter, which was very unusual. Call 6 Investigator Rafael Sanchez and Senior Digital Correspondent Jordan Fischer will be in Fort Wayne covering the trial every day. I always get the money.". -- John Shirley told jurors Tuesday that, while his relationship with his ex-wife Monserrate was severely damaged by the time he moved out, the gas appliances in their home were not. I didnt want it to affect the trial date, Robinson said. How to fix pii_email_029231e8462fca76041e Error Code? Your email address will not be published. I was introduced to this once-a-year dish at a party and she was one of the first people to give it a shot. So in the game of death, monserrate daughter is the Shirley of the game of death. While she was charged in December 2012 for her role in the explosion, she pleaded guilty to two felony conspiracy charges earlier this year in exchange for her testimony. [6] Prosecutors also allege that he offered the hit man a $5,000 bonus if he made the murder look like a suicide. She still qualifies as a practicing nurse. [28] Prosecutors expected to submit nearly 3,000 pieces of evidence, and potentially call up to 175 witnesses. Monserrate Shirley is lead into her sentencing hearing in December 2016. Thats time served, and hes out. I dont believe in vengeance and I know that my son is not a person that would accept vengeance and such things, he didnt live that way., I look at Monserrate Shirley and I see a wasted life, said Tony Burnett, who lived across the street from Shirley. Much of Tuesdays testimony included accounts of Shirleys difficult childhood. Monserrate Shirley, the Indianapolis homeowner whose house is suspected of being the source of a deadly explosion that damaged nearly 80 homes in her subdivision, was inconsolable Tuesday as she wept while speaking publicly for the first time about the horrific incident. Critics have accused Shirley of faking her reaction after the explosion because she seemed upset but never shed a tear. I certainly might feel bad for his family. Prosecutors said Leonard planned to pay a person he thought was a hit man $15,000, giving him a $5,000 bonus if a witness in the case called police to say he had lied about information he had given investigators. Leonard later tried telling Shirley that the only reason Holts wouldn't talk about his own fire was because he didn't want Leonard to end up with more money than he had. Leonard is the brother of Mark Leonard, who is dating Montserrate Shirley, who along with Mark Leonard, lives in the home . I don't want to be involved in any of this.". All I can say is, I had one small role in this. The most money she ever remembered seeing him lose on a single trip was $7,000. Shirley and her boyfriend Mark Leonard were out of town for the weekend while her 12-year-old daughter stayed with friends. [22], On January 16, 2015, Shirley agreed to a plea deal with prosecutors. Eventually, hed be asked to repeat her answer at her boyfriends murder trial. The sentence accounts for time served and good. Richmond Hill explosion: 'It's the toughest thing I've ever done in my career', Richmond Hill explosion: 7 keys that solved the case, Your California Privacy Rights/Privacy Policy. Later that same day, an attorney asked Shirley if the Longworths deserved what happened to them. Should I have accepted that stipulation? They said they didn't know. [9], Investigators discovered a number of allegations of insurance fraud and other scams by Leonard prior to the blast, particularly involving stolen or wrecked automobiles. [26], In a case unrelated to the explosion charges, Mark Leonard and two other men were charged with conspiracy to commit insurance fraud. [23] The plea deal involved Shirley pleading guilty to two counts of conspiracy to commit arson in exchange for testifying against the other suspects. Required fields are marked *. That hit man was later revealed to be an agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Follow us on Twitter at @AOLRealEstate, or connect with AOL Real Estate on Facebook and Pinterest. Until shed agreed and signed on the dotted line, there were things I could not tell them. The brothers were sentenced to terms of life without parole for spearheading the conspiracy. With good behavior, her earliest possible release date is Dec. 19, 2032. A source who claimed to be in contact with the Shirley family told WISH-TV in Indianapolis that a family member had complained about smelling gas in the home at one time. Shirley had earlier cooperated in providing testimony against alleged co-conspirators but. She moved to the United States when she was 25. At least three of his possessions did survive, however: two golf bags, with clubs, and a driver he'd been gifted. Prosecutors alleged Leonard was the mastermind behind the explosion that damaged or destroyed more than 80 homes in Indianapolis, plotting with his then-live-in girlfriend Monserrate Shirley. After speaking with detectives, they went to Mark's sister's home, where they spent the night. But ultimately I think we were able to accomplish what we needed to do for her.. Of the dozens and dozens of homes damaged by the blast, 33 were affected so severely they had to be demolished. Monserrate Shirley, 51, was one of five people charged in the explosion that left two people dead. The girlwas already out of the house while they cleared it of the sentimental items. Robinson could not tell them, for example, that Shirley would be facing a sentencing range of 20-50 years in prison. Leonard, his ex-girlfriend Monserrate Shirley, his half-brother Robert Leonard and Mark Leonards former employee blew up Shirleys home in the Richmond Hill subdivision to collect about $300,000 in insurance money to pay off the houses mortgage and Mark Leonards gambling and credit card debts. The cat, nicknamed Snowy, was a birthday gift for their daughter, he said, and "she misses him.". (WISH) - Monserrate Shirley told jurors Wednesday she would do anything for Mark Leonard, because she was in love with him. Shirley said she was attracted to Mark Leonard, particularly noting he was well-dressed and had bleach blonde hair. He was sentenced to 75 years in prison on the arson charges on top of two life sentences for the murder charges. In one case, she said the first attempt was supposed to be tied to gasoline not natural gas.