Most Red Zone Touchdowns All Time, Razer Drag Click Mouse, Granite City Police Scanner, Rabbit Hunting Nevada, Open Ngbmodal From Another Component, Articles M

[14] Shirley admitted raising the limit on her insurance coverage at Mark Leonard's urging, and only went along with the plot out of love for him. And the game of death is the game of life itself. Monserrate Shirley, who had initally pleaded not guilty after she and two men were charged in late 2012, appeared Tuesday before a Marion County judge in a courtroom filled with current and. Shirley: "No. That hit man was later revealed to be an agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Prosecutors contend that the motorcycle was disassembled in Shirley's garage. The truth is, I was scared.. He says sometimes strong winds would blow out the pilot light when someone opened the garage door. They said they didn't know. ", Minch: "You testified that you only used a babysitter maybe once a month, because your lifestyle with Ms. Shirley wasn't such that you went out every weekend?" Your email address will not be published. Gary Thompsonwas handed a 30-year prison sentence, 20 years executed, for his role in the murderous insurance fraud scheme. Shirley told jurors he lost a number of things in the explosion, including a collection of tennis rackets and a drafting table. Robinson told the residents what she could: That they didnt need Monserrate Shirley as a witness, but that she would help fill in blanks they hadnt been able to. He says he "was very surprised" to learn Snowball had been boarded on the night of the explosion. Ms. Shirley, 47, and Mark Leonard, 43, her boyfriend, were 100 miles away at a casino when their home blew up. Shirley claims Leonard coerced her involvement, testifying that he threatened her and her daughter. 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. Once again, she agreed to make the same three arrangements: the casino reservation, a babysitter for her daughterand boarding for Snowball. In court, Shirley testified Leonard had promised to show her how to make a lot of money. She didnt know anyone died, she said. 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. 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. They had left town the night before, after Ms. Shirley's nursing shift at a local. She grew up in Puerto Rico with a violently abusive father who would often beat Shirley as well as her siblings and mother. I didnt give it any credibility. At least three of his possessions did survive, however: two golf bags, with clubs, and a driver he'd been gifted. In court Wednesday, she said he turned on the gas, but never lit the fire. Follow his reporting on Twitter at @Jordan_RTV6 or on Facebook. Shirley may have been the prosecution's highest profile witness, but that doesn't mean they're done. -- 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. Iwas scared. Leonard asked Holts to tell the story of his own fire, how easily he'd gotten the money and to re-assure Shirley everything would be alright if they did it at her house. There's little remaining of Shirley's home (pictured at left) after Saturday's explosion. 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. He questioned her about the multiple boardings of her cat, Snowball, which he found odd. She explained that Snowball had anxiety. . Shirley spent hours on the stand. She was the neighbor that all the other neighbors were looking at. 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. He was sentenced in August to two life sentences, along with 75 years in prison. On the night of the explosion, Shirley said he was working a second job in Fishers. The brothers were sentenced to terms of life without parole for spearheading the conspiracy. [25] Leonard allegedly asked another inmate at the Marion County jail if he could put him in contact with a hitman, according to the probable cause affidavit. 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. Mark. Thompson arrived on Monday or Tuesday, October 22-23, while Shirley's daughter was at school. Prosecutors ask if Shirley was asked by police to identify personal property following the explosion. John moved out in February 2010 and their divorce was finalized that summer. Having Shirley as a witness came with its own pitfalls, though. Amazingly, despite the force of the explosion, a hybrid pear tree planted by Dion Longworth still grows in the yard where he and his wife Jennifers house once stood. Shirley says he was worried Brook's cat Snowball was in the house and might have been killed. He reportedly said, "[T]he tsunami winds came down the chimney, blew out the fire in the fireplace and the gas kept running and the house blew up. How to fix the pii__email__cbd448bbd34c985e423c Error code? Marion County Superior Court Judge Sheila Carlisle sentenced Monserrate Shirley to spend the maximum sentence of 50 years in prison on Tuesday. He said that his daughter had mentioned that the furnace wasn't working, and he wondered whether a gas leak ignited the blast. Get the Android Weather app from Google Play, Glenn Hults, the final defendant to stand trial for the explosion, Best athletic wear for kids joining baseball and, How to watch all the Oscar-nominated movies in style, Best smart home devices for older users, according, Bryce Young falls short: 5-10 . The defense certainly offered to stipulate that 60 homes were damaged. [11], Monserrate Shirley, Mark Leonard, and Bob Leonard were initially charged with two counts of murder and arson in the deaths of Dion and Jennifer Longworth. I worked from the smaller charges to the larger ones to say, Of course its clear he did this, this and this, but heres how you get to here, Robinson said. Monserrate worked Friday, November 9. Denise Robinson, the Marion County Prosecutor on the case, told the court she rarely asks for the maximum sentence. She told them she didn't want anything to do with them anymore. Mark Leonard first mentioned trying to burn the house down in February 2012, according to Shirley. [31][32][33] Bob Leonard was convicted on all 51 counts, including murder and conspiracy to commit arson, on February 24, 2016. Exasperated, Judge John Marnocha, who was assigned to oversee the trial, dismissed dozens of potential jurors and ended the day early with an admonition for Black and her co-counsel, David Shircliff. On Thursday, Shirley worked a 12 hour shift. The program is a spin-off of the Oxygen series Snapped and has a similar format to the Investigation Discovery program Wicked Attraction. On top of his prior criminal convictions, at the time of his arrest, Mark Leonard was being sued civilly by multiple women who accused him of scamming them out of money through online dating sites. Shirley and Leonard had gone on television on multiple occasions following the blast to state their innocence, and to ask for privacy. And I think when the motivation is that, what we have is a person who is the worst of the worst.. . Notifications can be turned off anytime in the browser settings. The November 2012 blast claimed the lives of John and Jennifer Longworth and spawned an investigation that landed five people behind bars. A copy of her plea agreement was entered into evidence and handed out to each member of the jury. Glenn Hults, who had known of the scheme and kept Shirleys daughter Brooke out of the house, pleaded guilty on Dec. 28, 2016, to one count of assisting a criminal. She was crying and hysterical and said the house blew up.". Saturday morning, they headed to the casino and Mark played a blackjack table, then they went to the bar and sat, waiting to get the phone call their home had caught fire. When she arrived at the bar, she found Mark and Bob in the white van at a nearby gas station. [20] The trials started in 2015. Shirley alleged that Hults initially came up with the idea. In addition to his roofing business, Mastercraft, Leonard also flipped cars on the side. Carter would testify that her emotions and demeanor seemed normal at the time, for someone whose house had just blown up. Thats time served, and hes out. The original posters source was a little bit of a weird little coincidence, but the name was still alive and well. Thirty-three homes were damaged so severely they were deemed unrecoverable, and had to be torn down to the foundation. They claim that Leonard wanted the hit man to force the witness to call 9-1-1 and recant his statement before killing him. He asked how much was in the 401k, according to Shirley. "I don't know what happened. The stove was electric. The man he called was actually an undercover agent. It wasnt the only curveball Black and Shircliff would throw at the prosecution. An autopsy will be conducted by the Marion County coroner's office Wednesday, according to the DOC. Leonard was being held at the Wabash Valley Correctional Facilitybut was transferred to the hospital several days ago. It was unclear when the complaint was made and whether the utility company was alerted. At one point, after one of the failed attempts to burn the home, Monserrate Shirley said she offered Mark Leonard her 401k instead. They went to the casino and waited for the call that a fire had broken out, but again, the call never came. Hults and his then-fiance babysat Shirley's daughter on the night of the explosion. None of them had given any indication they were willing to take a plea under the terms prosecutors were offering. Shirley: "Back in August (2011) she just stopped taking my phone calls and letting me talk to Brook. Her house exploded on their third attempt of trying to claim insurance money. We used to cook together, have dinner together.Very charming, very lovely man.". While Thompson checked the digital thermostat, Shirley heard him and Leonard say they could use it to trigger the fireplace as the source of the fire, but they never directly gave her any specifics on how they were going to do it. Much of the attention since the explosion has centered on Monserrate Shirley and her boyfriend Mark Leonard, who lived at the house in the center of the blast area. Lisa Marie Presley's daughter Riley Keough wears a Graceland sweater as she . Shirley agreed to plead guilty to two counts conspiracy to commit arson and testify against the co-conspirators in exchange for having all other charges dropped. Shirley's daughterwent with them in Leonard's Cadillac. She never got a call, though. 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. "I was at one of my part-time jobs when I got a text from my daughter, which was very unusual. Hed also been previously accused of insurance fraud in connection with a car accident. Defense attorney Ted Minch on cross-examination: "You're not happy to be here today." Shirley and her boyfriend Mark Leonard were out of town for the weekend while her 12-year-old daughter stayed with friends. Shirley said after he and his wife's divorce was finalized in July 2011, the last time he was at the home at 8349 Fieldfare Way was August of that year. Mark was a handsome man with sex appeal and a lot of money, judging by his stash of cash and fast luxury cars. She agreed that's what happened, but insisted she only said what Mark told her to say. Glenn Hults, who pleaded guilty to a felony for knowing about the plot but failing to report it to police, is scheduled for sentencing on December 28. Police became suspicious when they uncovered evidence that the couple had taken similar steps the previous weekend; the cat had been boarded and Shirley's daughter had been placed with a babysitter overnight before the couple went to the casino. Leonard is the brother of Mark Leonard, who is dating Montserrate Shirley, who along with Mark Leonard, lives in the home . She said Leonard had bought it a few months beforehand at that point. 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.