[16][17] The alleged motive for the arson was to collect insurance money to ease financial strain. [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. I know it caught us by surprise and we had to react to it.. [36] Shirley was sentenced to 50 years in prison, the maximum possible under her plea agreement, on December 20, 2016. . Leonard died around 9:15. The next morning, they returned to Indianapolis and saw the house was again still standing so Mark called Bob and told him to meet at a nearby parking lot. But after a second round of boarding Snowball the cat, getting a babysitter for Shirleys daughter and setting hotel reservations, the house again was standing. [16] On March 13, Leonard allegedly placed a call to a man who he believed to be a hit man. 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. She told her daughter a friend had taken it to put a new frame on it. By December 2014, two years after the explosion in the Richmond Hill subdivision, prosecutors were preparing to go to trial without any cooperating witnesses. Should I have accepted that stipulation? [10] Included on the probable cause affidavit were complaints from several women claiming that Leonard scammed them out of thousands of dollars. And your daughter lost some things?" More than one-third of the families who lived in the neighborhood on the night of the blast have since moved away for good. "That's not what you told me," she remembered saying to Mark. "I don't understand it," Shircliff said of the judge's ruling. Her role in the plan and execution of this act protected her own child and the family pet, but failed to consider the obvious danger it presented to anyone else. Prosecutors ask if Shirley was asked by police to identify personal property following the explosion. Indiana sheriffs deputy dies after falling ill during training, Myles Colvin captivates Heritage Christian crowds, preps for Purdue. As Mark Leonards defense team would point out repeatedly throughout his trial, there was a chance, however small, that Shirleys cooperation could end with her walking free at the end. How to fix pii_email_029231e8462fca76041e Error Code? Its been around since the late 80s, but Im sure well find more of it on our own site. She went to a bar on the south side of Indianapolis in November 2011 and they immediately noticed each other. 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. Robert Leonard, who was convicted of murder and multiple felonies, was sentenced to life without parole. I care about people. Much of Tuesdays testimony included accounts of Shirleys difficult childhood. Follow us on Twitter at @AOLRealEstate, or connect with AOL Real Estate on Facebook and Pinterest. Shirley said she thought the fire plan was crazy, but went along with it anyway. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. "You face one, you get over one and you've got another one all the way until the end. No one, Shirley replied, crying.I WAS IN LOVE WITH HIM. Shirley says Monserrate got the house in the divorce. Monserrate Shirley said Mark Leonard was very, very mad., Mark Leonard said, Were going to do it again. Mark was a handsome man with sex appeal and a lot of money, judging by his stash of cash and fast luxury cars. "Our investigators believe natural gas is involved," the Indianapolis Department of Homeland Security said in a statement. Robinson could not tell them, for example, that Shirley would be facing a sentencing range of 20-50 years in prison. 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. "(Whoever is responsible will) have to pay for what they did to me and everybody else," Shirley said in the interview. I cant give the Olveys back a peace of mind. John moved out in February 2010 and their divorce was finalized that summer. If your child will play baseball or softball this spring, youll need to stock up on appropriate clothing and equipment. FOLLOW|Rafael Sanchez on Twitter|Jordan Fischer on Twitter, RELATED LINKS |Richmond Hill Special Section|Mark Ray Leonard convicted on all counts. He faces up to life in prison without the possibility of parole if convicted. Defense attorney David Shircliff then said Shirley may not have provided the "means" for the explosion, but she took care of the logistics to make sure no one realized she was helping blow up her own home. Notifications can be turned off anytime in the browser settings. On December 21, 2012, Monserrate Shirley, Mark Leonard, and his brother Bob Leonard were charged with 2 counts of felony murder and . Another woman reported that she had loaned him about $5,000 for a construction job, which he had yet to pay back. As of summer 2022 the show has aired sixteen . "She lost everything," he said. In 2017, Leonard wasconvicted and received an additional 50-year sentencein a murder-for-hire scheme authorities say he concocted from jail after his arrest. He said that his daughter had mentioned that the furnace wasn't working, and he wondered whether a gas leak ignited the blast. But a whole days-worth of potential jurors would end up tainted anyway not by media coverage, but by Leonards defense team. It was never no for an answer. Prosecutors ended by asking Shirley if the Longworths or any of her other neighbors deserved what happened. At the end of the interview, Carter asked Shirley what should happen to the person responsible for the explosion. ", She said Mark told her, "It cannot be that bad.Don't worry about it. ", Holts then asked who would get the money if they went through with it and Mark said, "Of course, me. She got in the van with them, and Mark asked her to give Bob $40. This time, Shirley's daughterwas at home, but she was upstairs. The co-conspirators include Shirleys boyfriend at the time, Mark Leonard, and his brother, Bob Leonard Jr. 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. [5], Monserrate "Moncy" Shirley, a nurse, owned the home at the center of the explosion. Many of the women reported that they met him on dating sites and that he soon began asking them for money. On the day of the explosion, another neighbor saw a white van pull into the driveway of Shirley's residence between 2:00 and 3:00p.m. [20] The trials started in 2015. As fate would have it, it would be Carter, just a few weeks later, who would place Monserrate Shirley in handcuffs. We interviewed our tech expert, Jaime Vazquez, to learn more about accessible smart home devices. Will they get to the felony murder?. You can't do anything," he said. It had three gas appliances - the water heater, the furnace and the fireplace. John did all the maintenance on the home - she never did any. "That cannot be real. [6] One woman had previously won a $70,000 judgment against Leonard in a civil suit after lending him $53,000, which he never repaid. When she got home, Mark told her he and Bob had gone to the library to research other similar homes that had been set on fire without anyone getting hurt. Its about remembering who you are. Bob Leonard, Monserrate Shirley, Gary Thompson and Glenn Hults also face charges in connection to the explosion. She and Mark then gassed up her car and drove to the casino. Shirley may have been the prosecution's highest profile witness, but that doesn't mean they're done. Estimates for the total scope of the damage caused by the explosion exceeded $4.5 million. After demands for a vote on the bill, we finally received one. Leonardwas placed under "imminent death watch" earlier this week. I tried to ignore Mark Leonards history as much as I could, Robinson said. According to Shirley, he said the house fire would happen, "even if I have to step in the living room and light up this house myself.". Shortly thereafter I moved some furniture into the apartment. Prosecuting Mark Leonard presented with some challenges. Holts invited Leonard and Shirley to his friend's house for a pool party in the Geist neighborhood. On the night of the explosion, Shirley said he was working a second job in Fishers. Neighbors, family testify in sentencing hearing of Monserrate Shirley, owner of the home. Its about your game being the only game that matters. Call IndyStar reporter Holly Hays at (317) 444-6156. [6] They had arranged for Shirley's 12-year-old daughter to stay with friends and had boarded their cat, Snowball, for the weekend. She said that she hasn't been eating or sleeping well and that she has been taking Xanax to get what little sleep she can. She, at first, struggled to identify her other neighbors. Bad food, non-first class flights drop Colts to middle-of-pack in player survey. ", "Richmond Hill explosion suspects to get separate trials", "Attorneys: Change of venue likely in Monserrate Shirley case", "Richmond Hill suspect trial moved to South Bend", "Defendant in deadly Indiana explosion agrees to plea deal", "Richmond Hill trial: Informant says Mark Leonard wanted witness killed", "Home> U.S. Indianapolis House Explosion: Suspect Charged in Murder-for-Hire Plot", "Marion county prosecutor's office asks for life without parole sentences in richmond hill explosion", "Richmond Hill trial to focus on greed and desperation", "Mark Leonard convicted of murder in explosion scheme", "Mark Leonard gets life without parole for Richmond Hill explosion", "Richmond Hill explosion mastermind Mark Leonard dies", "Cause of death of Richmond Hill conspirator Mark Leonard determined", "Richmond Hill explosion culprit Mark Leonard dies at Indy hospital", "Leonard found guilty of all counts in Richmond Hill trial", "Indianapolis man get 2 life sentences in deadly house blast", "Psychologist Says Monserrate Shirley Was Abused as Child, Has 'Dependent Personality Disorder', "Monserrate Shirley sentenced to maximum 50 years in prison", "Gary Thompson sentenced in Richmond Hill explosion after pleading guilty to arson charge", "Glenn Hults sentenced to 3 years in deadly Richmond Hill blast", Affidavit of Probable Cause, Dec. 20, 2012, Affidavit of Probable Cause, April 14, 2015, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Richmond_Hill_explosion&oldid=1133693717, November 2012 crimes in the United States, Articles with incomplete citations from March 2015, Short description is different from Wikidata, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 15 January 2023, at 02:18.