Shirley, her boyfriend Mark Leonard, and three others were convicted and sentenced to prison on various charges, including felony murder for Leonard. For Lt. Mario Garza, the Indianapolis Fire Department veteran tasked with leading the arson investigation, the Richmond Hill explosion will likely be the most significant challenge of his career. More than one-third of the families who lived in the neighborhood on the night of the blast have since moved away for good. ", Minch: "At no time did she ever say she was involved in the explosion?" Iwas scared. She later worked at St. Francis and Community South. Shed said similar things in an interview with IMPD Det. At sentencing, St. Joseph Superior Court Judge John Marnocha said Leonard demonstrated a sheer indifference for the safety of others., The motivation here is greed, Marnocha said. Leonard died around 9:15. Bob Leonard's son told investigators that several items were in the van that had been taken from the home, including photos and financial documents. Monserrate Shirley detailed the multiple attempts made to set the house on fire prior to the explosion that leveled the home. Its about remembering who you are. "In order to pay a very large amount of child support, I was working a full-time job and two part-time jobs," he said. 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. I got upset with her and sent her some derogatory texts. Will they get to the felony murder?. She will be 72 years old. Wednesday in court, Shirley said that at the July 4th pool party, she called lighting the house on fire crazy. Many Git commands accept both tag and branch names, so creating this branch may cause unexpected behavior. Shirley says the house had three gas appliances when he lived there: furnace, water heater and fireplace. Estimates for the total scope of the damage caused by the explosion exceeded $4.5 million. 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. You're done.". That hit man was later revealed to be an agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. In a room inside IFD Station 63 less than a mile from the Richmond Hill subdivision Carter and Shirley talked about her whereabouts on the night of the explosion. But their arrests wereonly the beginning of years of work to put them behind bars for good. 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 . 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. I dont wish them any hardship. Bad food, non-first class flights drop Colts to middle-of-pack in player survey. Thats time served, and hes out. The force of the blast shattered windows and ripped down garage doors at dozens of other homes in the neighborhood. He was, however, eventually able to return to his hobby of umpiring softball. He looked over the insurance policy and said she was under-insured so she called the insurance company and doubled her policy from $150,000 to $300,000. Shirley would receive over $300,000 in insurance money for the replacement of the home as well as personal items. She then got food for them both and went back to the room around midnight. Mark Leonard is on trial in South Bend in connection to the explosion in the Richmond Hill neighborhood that killed Jennifer and Dion Longworth in November 2012. Seven months later, on March 18, 2016, his brother Bob Leonard Jr. received his own sentence of life without parole in a courtroom in Fort Wayne, Indiana. It was a good feeling.. I said OK, she said. 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. Glenn Hults, the final defendant to stand trial for the explosion, pleaded guilty to a lesser charge last month that may result in no additional jail time. The couple says their neighbor Bob Leonard was led away for questioning. Shirley told jurors he lost a number of things in the explosion, including a collection of tennis rackets and a drafting table. Get caught up on the first two chapters here:Chapter I: The Night the Sky Caught Fire|Chapter II: The $4 Million Arson Plot. [6] They had arranged for Shirley's 12-year-old daughter to stay with friends and had boarded their cat, Snowball, for the weekend. Of the dozens and dozens of homes damaged by the blast, 33 were affected so severely they had to be demolished. He questioned her about the multiple boardings of her cat, Snowball, which he found odd. She explained that Snowball had anxiety. The now 49-year-old originally faced life in prison without parole. I certainly might feel bad for his family. I see a con artist when I look at her., If she really is apologetic, then I accept the apology, said Dion Longworths father, John Longworth. ", When prosecutors asked if she was serious about the 401K offer, Shirley said, "I would have given him anything because I was in love with him.". Four years after thedeadly Richmond Hill explosion, another chapter has closed. Source: http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2012/11/14/monserrate-shirley-speaks-about-indianapolis-house-explosion/, emmy rossum jay z and beyonce the big chill tony blankley charles barkley beyonce troy polamalu, http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2012/11/14/monserrate-shirley-speaks-about-indianapolis-house-explosion/. [6] A friend of the couple reported that Mark Leonard had lost $10,000 at the casino approximately three weeks before the explosion. Including journalists, it was closer to four dozen. If your child will play baseball or softball this spring, youll need to stock up on appropriate clothing and equipment. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. Thompson left after a few hours and Shirley didn't hear anything else before the first attempt that Saturday. They agreed to say they'd been having trouble with the thermostat and smelling gas for a while. There's little remaining of Shirley's home (pictured at left) after Saturday's explosion.
Man convicted of murder in deadly Indiana house explosion "The State asked questions about [the interview] andthe judge said on the record that he saw no difference in her demeanor [on the video] than what she did today and that was our whole point: that she can tell a lie as easy as she tells the truth.". I commend Det. The co-conspirators include Shirleys boyfriend at the time, Mark Leonard, and his brother, Bob Leonard Jr. After demands for a vote on the bill, we finally received one. They are charged with. I did everything to make him happy, Monserrate Shirley said in testimony. GitHub export from English Wikipedia.
West's Mortuary, Inc. According to Shirleys account, she was struggling to stay financially afloat when she met Leonard, and within a month of dating, he came up with the idea. Monserrate Shirley was given the house after her divorce. She and her boyfriend, Mark Leonard, who also lived at the residence, told authorities they had left Friday night for a weekend at Hollywood Casino in Lawrenceburg, Indiana. He said that his daughter had mentioned that the furnace wasn't working, and he wondered whether a gas leak ignited the blast. While Leonard has been in slacks, a dress shirt and tie throughout the trial, Shirley walked into the courtroom in shackles and a prison jumpsuit.
Monserrate Shirley: 'I did everything to make him happy' - WISH-TV The Retaking Of Richmond Hill - Indianapolis Monthly And then there was the arrangement that when I picked up my daughter I would get to take some of my belongings. The first time Shirley cried on the stand Wednesday was when she was asked about her neighbors. She even took some leave from work to stay with him longer than her paid vacation time allowed. Her sister had lived in the same housing complex. Shirley said she thought the fire plan was crazy, but went along with it anyway. Again, Monserrate agreed to do her same three preparations: a casino hotel reservation, a babysitter for her daughterand boarding for Snowball.
Snapped: Killer Couples - Wikipedia And I think when the motivation is that, what we have is a person who is the worst of the worst.. Call IndyStar reporter Holly Hays at (317) 444-6156. It started as a bad headache, but quickly grew until he was hospitalized with an autoimmune disease serious enough he would need a blood transfusion. | ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
"She lost everything," he said. . 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.
Inquiry Into Indianapolis Blast Suggests Scheme Gone Wrong - The New She then spoke with another neighbor, who told her there had been an explosion. She and her husband Gabriel Ferrer (son of Rosemary Clooney and Jos Ferrer, and a first cousin to George Clooney) had four children: Jordan Alexander Ferrer (born July 8, 1980), twin girls (Gabrielle Monserrate Ferrer & Dustin Boone Ferrer, born September 17, 1983), and Tessa Ferrer (born March 30, 1986). Prosecutors then proposed an unusual strategy involving one trial, but three separate juries, one for each defendant. Thompson said he'd been pulled over by a cop so he couldn't get to the house. Should we not use all those witnesses? Shirley met Mark Leonard. [1] Thirty-three homes were damaged severely enough to require demolition. She has already been behind bars for four years. How to fix pii_email_029231e8462fca76041e Error Code? Robinson knew that. They moved into a home they built in Richmond Hill toward the end of 2003. Powerball winner sold in central Indiana! You were a mom. One small job. This time, Leonard worked with Thompson instead of Thompson doing the work while Leonard stood next to him, watching and planning. Eventually, hed be asked to repeat her answer at her boyfriends murder trial. I know it caught us by surprise and we had to react to it.. Having Shirley as a witness came with its own pitfalls, though. BREAKING: By a vote of 24-38, New York's State Senate has voted against same-sex marriage legislation. But Im not allowed to say that. He was sentenced to 75 years in prison on the arson charges on top of two life sentences for the murder charges. Shirley testified that friends called and told her there was a huge explosion. It would have shortened the trial a week. The explosion leveled 8349 Fieldfare Way, the home at the center of the explosion, and severely damaged a number of other residences, including several (on either side) which were damaged by the ensuing fire. He did come to the house one week before the first attempt. Monserrate Shirley, who had pleaded not guilty after she and two men were charged in late 2012, appeared before a Marion County judge in a courtroom filled with current and former residents of the . On December 21, 2012, Monserrate Shirley, Mark Leonard, and his brother Bob Leonard were charged with 2 counts of felony murder and . Shirley spent hours on the stand. Shirley said she was attracted to Mark Leonard, particularly noting he was well-dressed and had bleach blonde hair. But I dont feel bad for the deceased.. The inmate and Leonard drew up a contract agreeing that Leonard would pay the inmate $15,000 when he was released, the affidavit said. Shirley and Leonard had gone on television on multiple occasions following the blast to state their innocence, and to ask for privacy. 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. Instead, on Dec. 20, 2016 - after a two-day sentencing hearing that would be the closest her former neighbors would get to seeing her on trial - Shirley was sentenced to the maximum term of 50 years in prison. [6] Her attorneys argued that she was trapped in an abusive relationship and was coerced by Mark Leonard into participating in the crime. She found a house with a floorplan she liked."
Neighbors seek max sentence in fatal home blast - USA TODAY