The defense said if prosecutors wrapped up early enough on Thursday, they could call all of their witnesses that day alone and closing arguments could be held Friday, July 10. He was working in Fishers on the night of the explosion. Hults faces no prison time to three years . The here, in this case, was the knowing murder of Dion and Jennifer Longworth. Its quite obvious that monserrate is the source of the name in this case. ", Minch: "At no time did she ever say she was involved in the explosion?" 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. She found a house with a floorplan she liked." "I feel like, you know, it would have been better off for me to be there [at the house when it exploded]," Shirley said. You may have noticed that the name monserrate has been replaced with the word shirley, which is used in both a variety of other games and in the game of death. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. 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. Shirley struck a plea deal with prosecutors and was sentenced to 50 years in prison. More on AOL Real Estate:Find homes for rent in your area.Find out how to calculate mortgage payments.Find homes for sale in your area.Find foreclosures in your area. The courtroom was crowded Monday as the proceedings began, as those who were hurt or lost their homes, plus the parents of Dion and Jennifer Longworth wait to learn Shirley's . He says the log lighter worked fine when he lived there. Arguing for the maximum in this case, when you live with this case and you see the impact, and you know what devastating effect its had on these lives, it just compels you to argue for that, said Robinson. 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. And it wasn't the answer we were looking for. All I can say is, I had one small role in this. Monserrate worked Friday, November 9. After the first failure, Leonard decided he also wanted to bring in his half-brother, Bob. At 11:11 p.m. on Nov. 10, 2012, a two-story home on the south side of Indianapolis exploded with the force of as much as 5 tons of TNT. Aaron Carter. Shirley says they were his. They agreed to say they'd been having trouble with the thermostat and smelling gas for a while. She still qualifies as a practicing nurse. [37] She is serving her sentence at Indiana Women's Prison in Indianapolis. Defense attorneys tried to play that video for jurors Wednesday, but the judge wouldnt allow it. [19] Judge Shelia Carlisle rejected the proposal, noting that no Indiana law authorizes the use of concurrent jury trials. She would sit with him, eat and drink and occasionally play slot machines. 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. Shirley said she recalled telling them two innocent people die out of this.THIS HAS TO BE DONE. Again, Monserrate agreed to do her same three preparations: a casino hotel reservation, a babysitter for her daughterand boarding for Snowball. [6] "I have everybody telling me stuff that they said on the TV," she said. Fixed: Release in which this issue/RFE has been fixed.The release containing this fix may be available for download as an Early Access Release or a General Availability Release. He told her to tell Holts, though, that they would be trying the fire again that night (Sunday night). Including journalists, it was closer to four dozen. I tried to ignore Mark Leonards history as much as I could, Robinson said. Shirley says he and Monserrate married on July 17, 1993. I told them I dont even want to be a part of this, Shirley testified as telling the Leonards. From confusion to conviction, Richmond Hill blast recapped. 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. Leonard asked her to get a babysitter for her daughter, make a reservation at the casino's hotel for the two of them and to board the family cat, "Snowball." Gary Thompson, who had helped with the first two unsuccessful attempts to blow up Monserrate Shirleys house, pleaded guilty on Dec. 2, 2016, to conspiracy to commit arson and was sentenced to 20 years in prison. 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. The original posters source was a little bit of a weird little coincidence, but the name was still alive and well. In one case, she said the first attempt was supposed to be tied to gasoline not natural gas. In addition to the thousands of pieces of physical evidence, they had more than 200 witnesses lined up to testify. When they arrived, Mark told her the fire would happen Saturday night so she needed to ask to keep their room a second night (Saturday night). Shirley: "She lost everything. She said Mark didn't actually want anyone to come to the house, he just wanted a trail they could point to after the fire so they could explain why they were in the hotel. 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. She said she did not tell officers at the time what happened because she was scared. They enter into evidence two golf bags with clubs and a driver. 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. 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. We again offer our condolences to the families of Dion and Jennifer Longworth and to those who suffered injury and loss. On December 21, 2012, Monserrate Shirley, Mark Leonard, and his brother Bob Leonard were charged with 2 counts of felony murder and . . I want everyone to know how sorry I am for this horrible tragedy, she said in court in front of Richmond Hill residents. 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. She was crying and hysterical and said the house blew up.". The Richmond Hill neighbors had been waiting long enough without a trial. We are sure to have a lot more weird coincidences in the next few days, but this one is pretty crazy. Prosecutors entered all three into evidence Tuesday. 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. [24], On March 28, 2015, Mark Leonard was charged with conspiring to murder the key witness against him, Mark Duckworth. Deputy Prosecutor DeniseRobinson has said she will argue for 50 when the time comes. PHOTOS: First Richmond Hill trial Mark Leonard is on. At one point you replaced the thermostat." Somebody knew that I was out of town. How to fix pii_email_029231e8462fca76041e Error Code? Shirley's next-door neighbors, John and Jennifer Longworth, died in the blast. But while he was living in the home, the only problem he had with its gas appliances the furnace, water heater and fireplace was that their pilot lights would sometimes go out when a draft blew in from an open garage door. Hed also been previously accused of insurance fraud in connection with a car accident. The case was expected to be the largest and most expensive trial in Marion County history. She grabbed a few pictures, including the canvas portrait of her daughterat age 5 that hung above the fireplace. I always get the money.". She even took some leave from work to stay with him longer than her paid vacation time allowed. Monserrate Shirley testified that Mark Leonard is the one who told her to increase the insurance on the contents of her house, and she also testified Mark Leonard brought up the idea of setting fire to her house for easy money. And you have to weigh that out? I certainly might feel bad for his family. To begin the day, Monserrate Shirley explained how she and Mark Leonard met. Shirley: "No. Says Sen. Tom. "She lost everything," he said. [14] In April 2015, a fifth man, Glenn Hults, was charged with conspiracy to commit arson. I didn't do nothing wrong.". He occasionally worked on those cars at Shirley's home so she saw he had a wide array of tools. Ultimately, she could end up serving 21 years if she maintains good behavior in prison. I thought it was crazy, but I went along with him. 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. Leonard is charged with 53 counts of murder, arson and conspiracy. Below, former IMPD Det. Call 6 Investigator Rafael Sanchez and Senior Digital Correspondent Jordan Fischer will be in Fort Wayne covering the trial every day. They said they didn't know. She agreed that's what happened, but insisted she only said what Mark told her to say. Shirley: "No.". 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. There's little remaining of Shirley's home (pictured at left) after Saturday's explosion. They got to the room, but Mark wasn't feeling well so he stayed there while Shirley played slot machines for about an hour. Shirley says he was working at Eli Lilly at the time, and Monserrate was working as an RN at the VA hospital. She said he also told her not to worry because he took out the step-down valve on the gas line, "and put it away where no one else would ever find it. I have morals.I love my patients and I would do anything for them. He gave her $3,000 to use, and they lost it all. After speaking with detectives, they went to Mark's sister's home, where they spent the night. 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 . . 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. [6] Prosecutors also allege that he offered the hit man a $5,000 bonus if he made the murder look like a suicide. Should we not use all those witnesses? It would have shortened the trial a week. After her 12 hour shift, she planned to see her daughter at the Holts' house and change there. And then there was the arrangement that when I picked up my daughter I would get to take some of my belongings. 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. Leonard got sick in March 2012. Prosecutors told Judge Marnocha Tuesday they will likely rest their case next Wednesday or Thursday. Thirty-three homes were damaged so severely they were deemed unrecoverable, and had to be torn down to the foundation. Her sister had lived in the same housing complex. Iwas scared. [5], The most damning piece of evidence was a witness statement from one of Mark Leonard's associates, who told investigators that the weekend before the explosion, Leonard told him that "the house blew up". Lisa Marie Presley's daughter Riley Keough wears a Graceland sweater as she . Its a game that only you can play. The only improvement he ever made was to buy two flat screen TV's, a 65-70 inch model for the master bedroom and a 42 inch screen for her daughter'sroom. ", 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?" The first attempt was supposed to be carried out by Gary Thompson, but it failed. [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. Prosecutors alleged that the natural gas explosion was intentionally set to collect insurance money. The couple's steamy relationship lasted for about a month before they moved in together. She asked that Mark and Bob switch it back out for the nicer version. This may help explain why this dish is beloved by patrons like myself. They are charged with. I cant give back what was taken from them on November 10. With good behavior, her earliest possible release date is Dec. 19, 2032. Everything's under control.". Shirley: "She wanted us to live in a bigger house. [22], On January 16, 2015, Shirley agreed to a plea deal with prosecutors. No one, Shirley replied, crying.I WAS IN LOVE WITH HIM. In court, Shirley testified Leonard had promised to show her how to make a lot of money. Deputy prosecutor Denise Robinson returned from prosecuting the Richmond Hill cases to a pile of homicides waiting on her desk. . The blast the product of an insurance fraud scheme killed two people and injured dozens of others. But she put an end to that in August 2011.". But didnt the jury need to hear from the residents? Prosecutors started by addressing her plea agreement. Today, Snowball, a white Persian cat, is in the care of John Shirley, Monserrate's ex-husband. Follow her on Twitter:@hollyvhays. She was too involved. 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. No one involved in this investigation or prosecution will forget the stories of this tragedy and the continuing fear and trauma that it caused to the survivors. "I mean, sometimes I wish I was there and I'd be dead, and now I wouldn't have to be asked so many questions.". The defense team started their cross-examination by establishing Shirley's ability to make life-and-death decisions in high-pressure situations while a charge nurse in the ICU. "You face one, you get over one and you've got another one all the way until the end. The evidence Robinson and Hollingsworth had was substantial. When she left that morning, her daughterand Snowball were still there (Mark was going to take them to school and the kennel). The defense certainly offered to stipulate that 60 homes were damaged. Start the day smarter Notable deaths in 2023 The world's largest war 2023 meteor showers [36] Shirley was sentenced to 50 years in prison, the maximum possible under her plea agreement, on December 20, 2016. John moved out in February 2010 and their divorce was finalized that summer. Your email address will not be published. FORT WAYNE, Ind. You were a neighbor and you were a friend, Carlisle said. Should I have accepted that stipulation? "I don't know what happened. But I cant do that, and everybody knows you cant do that, but sometimes theres this perception that getting through the justice system will make things better. He said that his daughter had mentioned that the furnace wasn't . I said I think theres ($10,000) or $12,000 in there, and he said, That was not enough, I want $300,000, Shirley said. 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. On the night of the explosion, Shirley said he was working a second job in Fishers. Shirley says he replaced the thermostat "so there were more options to heat the house during the day.". The stove was electric. towns among 150 Best Small Town in America, Citizens support Ind. At the final tally, the explosion meant to allow Shirley and Leonard to collect $300,000 in insurance money caused more than $4 million-worth of property damage. She didnt know anyone died, she said. Its because the game of death is the game of life itself. (They were) my neighbors for a very long time since we built the house, Shirley said. "It's like waking up to this bad dream," Shirley said, her voice cracking as tears flowed down her cheeks. monserrate is the name of the dish, as well as its . Monserrate Shirley spent the entire day on the stand Wednesday, and the anticipation of her testimony was evident in courtroom attendance.