We believed that he did, we had some very thin evidence that he did. The now 49-year-old originally faced life in prison without parole. [24], On March 28, 2015, Mark Leonard was charged with conspiring to murder the key witness against him, Mark Duckworth. Shirley alleged that Hults initially came up with the idea. 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. It was run by the daughter of a famous American actor who was very close to the owner. An offhand comment would change that. But these were good defense attorneys. And then there was the arrangement that when I picked up my daughter I would get to take some of my belongings. The shirley daughter is an Italian restaurant that takes more than 15 minutes to make you feel at home. Leonard died around 9:15 a.m. Tuesday at an Indianapolis hospital,according to an Indiana Department of Correction spokesman. Monserrate Shirley and her boyfriend, Mark Leonard, who lived in the home, along with Leonard's brother, Robert Leonard, were arrested Friday on 48 charges, including murder and arson. The cat, nicknamed Snowy, was a birthday gift for their daughter, he said, and "she misses him.". The truth is, I was scared.. [28] Prosecutors expected to submit nearly 3,000 pieces of evidence, and potentially call up to 175 witnesses. Shed said similar things in an interview with IMPD Det. John moved out in February 2010 and their divorce was finalized that summer. She was the one who got her daughter and her cat out of the situation and left her neighbors in the situation. 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. [27], Mark Leonard's trial began in June 2015. "We had a lot of parties," the late. (WISH) Monserrate Shirley told jurors Wednesday she would do anything for Mark Leonard, because she was in love with him. I had a homicide detective crying on the stand. She would then go to a southside bar to meet Mark before they left for the casino. He also told Bob to go get Gary Thompson. After court adjourned for the day, Shircliff said he attacked her inconsistencies "to show that she can tell the truth as easily as she tells a lie, and it's hard for the jury to know the difference. Please look at the time stamp on the story to see when it was last updated. 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. BREAKING: By a vote of 24-38, New York's State Senate has voted against same-sex marriage legislation. 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. HS counselor at board meeting, Serial Indianapolis rapist pleads guilty to 9 counts, Mom speaks out after 2 kids killed by falling tree, Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information. On August 14, 2015, Mark Ray Leonard was sentenced to two consecutive terms of life without parole, plus an additional 75 years, on 53 counts, including murder, arson and insurance fraud. "I am a nurse. They laughed at her for asking, but it was switched back out. Thompson returned to their home to plan their next attempt. Heappears to have died of natural causes. She transferred from her job in Michigan to the VA hospital in Indianapolis, where she worked for 17 years, focusing in the ICU. Home owner, Monserrate Shirley; her boyfriend, Mark Leonard; and his brother, Bob Leonard, were arrested Friday and charged with murder and arson Prosecutors may seek the death penalty Fire. Shirley had earlier cooperated in providing testimony against alleged co-conspirators but. 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. "I mean, I'm totally devastated like my neighbors are.". The co-conspirators include Shirleys boyfriend at the time, Mark Leonard, and his brother, Bob Leonard Jr. She found a house with a floorplan she liked." For years, the team holed up in that office three days a week to avoid being distracted by other ongoing cases. The most money she ever remembered seeing him lose on a single trip was $7,000. When we got in this case, we were asked to save her life, said defense attorney James Voyles. Notifications can be turned off anytime in the browser settings. (They were) my neighbors for a very long time since we built the house, Shirley said. 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. One of the projects he took on was working on the gas line in the fireplace. It's been hard for me and my daughter. After the first failure, Leonard decided he also wanted to bring in his half-brother, Bob. I look at a neighbor that I would have been happy to help if she would have just come across the street and said, man I got a problem will you give me a hand? In an interview with former RTV6 reporter Stacia Matthews, Shirley suggested the explosion may have been an attempt on her life. SOUTH BEND, Ind. The human toll is harder to estimate. Lisa Marie Presley's daughter Riley Keough wears a Graceland sweater as she . While questioning potential jurors, one of Leonards attorneys, Diane Black, brought up out of the blue that her client had tried to hire a hitman from jail to kill his friend, and potential witness against him, Mark Duckworth. On Thursday, Shirley worked a 12 hour shift. At least half a dozen marriages in the Richmond Hill neighborhood ended in divorce in the years immediately following the blast. [20] The trials started in 2015. Shirley: "No. The brothers were sentenced to terms of life without parole for spearheading the conspiracy. 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.". She and her daughterwent to the hotel, where Mark later joined them. Shirley gave 12 interviews and statements between the explosion and Wednesday's testimony - some for law enforcement, others for attorneys and one for the media - and defense attorneys pointed out inconsistencies between some of those. [22], On January 16, 2015, Shirley agreed to a plea deal with prosecutors. Minch: "Before that, you did have some problems with the pilot light on the furnace?" 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. "You can't even do a fire. Shirley: "She wanted us to live in a bigger house. Shirley didn't hear anything more about a plot to start a fire that night, and nothing happened. 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. Too little, too late, said Jennifer Longworths father, Don Buxton. Ms. Shirley, 47, and Mark Leonard, 43, her boyfriend, were 100 miles away at a casino when their home blew up. On the night of the explosion, Shirley said he was working a second job in Fishers. Yes, I didnt think it would be possible, Monserrate Shirley said.HUGE EXPLOSION. Denise Robinson, the Marion County Prosecutor on the case, told the court she rarely asks for the maximum sentence. Mark Leonard was convicted in 2015 of two counts of murder as well as a litany of other charges, including multiple counts of arson and conspiracy to commit arson. One small job. This time, Shirley's daughterwas at home, but she was upstairs. Required fields are marked *. [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. The name was inspired by the work of the famous Italian poet Leonardo da Vinci, but it was actually a combination of the two that are so influential in the history of Italian cooking that the name was changed to monserrate. 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. This time, Leonard worked with Thompson instead of Thompson doing the work while Leonard stood next to him, watching and planning. She will be 72 years old. 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 daughters often watched the girl. He was going to bring Thompson to their house so she could say she was okay to move forward, too. 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. News, information &. Every day I ask myself why I didnt stop this. ", 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.". We used to cook together, have dinner together.Very charming, very lovely man.". I said, You guys are crazy, that my house is too big.. In one case, she said the first attempt was supposed to be tied to gasoline not natural gas. A second mortgage had been taken out on the home for $65,000 in addition to the original mortgage of $116,000. 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. The crowd watched in grim silence as a Marion County judge entered not guilty pleas for Monserrate Shirley, her boyfriend Mark Leonard, and his brother, Bob Leonard. The original posters source was a little bit of a weird little coincidence, but the name was still alive and well. Shirley says he and Monserrate married on July 17, 1993. He occasionally worked on those cars at Shirley's home so she saw he had a wide array of tools. Of the dozens and dozens of homes damaged by the blast, 33 were affected so severely they had to be demolished. Follow us on Twitter at @AOLRealEstate, or connect with AOL Real Estate on Facebook and Pinterest. Shirley says he and Monserrate married on July 17, 1993. He was sentenced to 3 years in prison. The stove was electric. We interviewed our tech expert, Jaime Vazquez, to learn more about accessible smart home devices. No one, Shirley replied, crying.I WAS IN LOVE WITH HIM. An autopsy will be conducted by the Marion County coroner's office Wednesday, according to the DOC. Their challenge was to distill two-and-a-half years of research and investigation into a six week trial without losing the jury in the process. I always get the money.". We firmly believed that Gary Thompson played a role, but until she cooperated, we couldnt prove that, Robinson said. He did come to the house one week before the first attempt. He was sentenced in August to two life sentences, along with 75 years in prison. "I feel like, you know, it would have been better off for me to be there [at the house when it exploded]," Shirley said. As stated previously, the investigation and prosecution of this matter has literally taken tens of thousands of hours of effort by numerous individuals. He says he "was very surprised" to learn Snowball had been boarded on the night of the explosion. -- 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. Shirley would receive over $300,000 in insurance money for the replacement of the home as well as personal items. 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. 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. He said that his daughter had mentioned that the furnace wasn't working, and he wondered whether a gas leak ignited the blast. Defense counsel said the deposition version showed she was actually in favor of burning the house down, she just didn't want to get caught. "Cases are made up of hurdles all the time," Robinson said Wednesday. How to fix the pii__email__cbd448bbd34c985e423c Error code? So in the end there were a couple of people who were opposed to it, and I respected that. Leonards death doesnt change the fact that Jennifer and Dion died, Buxton said. It had three gas appliances - the water heater, the furnace and the fireplace. "That's not what you told me," she remembered saying to Mark. 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. But she put an end to that in August 2011.". "(Whoever is responsible will) have to pay for what they did to me and everybody else," Shirley said in the interview. Mark Leonard was the first to go on trial. Write For Us: Investigative Articles are Intriguing. She asked that Mark and Bob switch it back out for the nicer version. Made and inspired by a love triangle, this was written by a girl from Italy. She was upset when she got home that night and saw her nicer digital thermostat sitting on the kitchen island and the new cheaper model on the wall. He said that his daughter had mentioned that the furnace wasn't . She said they should be punished, Carter testified. 2023 CIRCLE CITY BROADCASTING I, LLC. Shirley says Monserrate's sister moved out of the neighborhood around the same time they moved in. Example video title will go here for this video. She went to a bar on the south side of Indianapolis in November 2011 and they immediately noticed each other. 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. They decided to cut a piece of cardboard to block off the chimney path. [8], Prosecutors alleged that on the Friday before the explosion, Leonard and his brother Bob spoke with a neighbor who was a Citizens Energy employee, asking that person about the differences between natural gas and propane. To this day, absolutely they had the right to do that. The explosion in the subdivision just south of the city on Saturday, Nov. 10, killed John and Jennifer Longworth. She still wiped under her eyes with a tissue several times while she was on the stand. This time, Mark and Bob talked alone while Monserrate left to pick up her daughter. 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. [36] Shirley was sentenced to 50 years in prison, the maximum possible under her plea agreement, on December 20, 2016.