monserrate shirley daughter

I dont feel bad for Mr. Leonard, said Don Buxton, father of Jennifer Longworth, who was killed in the blast with her husband, Dion. 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. A second home was reduced to rubble as well, and other houses were half-collapsed. [21] Mark Leonard was granted a change of venue and was tried in South Bend. I didnt want it to affect the trial date, Robinson said. 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 fact, they said that at the time she raised her insurance policy to $300,000, she was roughly $300,000 in debt (more than $200K between her two mortgages on top of the bankruptcy settlement left over from her divorce). TRANSCRIPT | Opening statements in the trial of Mark Leonard. [37] She is serving her sentence at Indiana Women's Prison in Indianapolis. I did my best. 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. She still qualifies as a practicing nurse. FULL STORY | Mark Leonards friend says he knew too much. Shirley: "No.". Among the "no" votes, inexplicably: political dancer Hiram Monserrate. Authorities blamed a natural gas explosion inside the home of Monserrate Shirley, who was away at the time of the explosion. Deputy Prosecutor DeniseRobinson has said she will argue for 50 when the time comes. The most money she ever remembered seeing him lose on a single trip was $7,000. 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. Ms. Shirley, 47, and Mark Leonard, 43, her boyfriend, were 100 miles away at a casino when their home blew up. ", She said Mark told her, "It cannot be that bad.Don't worry about it. she said. Mark then asked Bob twice to "go get the part that we need." And it wasn't the answer we were looking for. Its because the life of the game itself is the life of the game itself. Iwas scared. Shirley had earlier cooperated in providing testimony against alleged co-conspirators but. Estimates for the total scope of the damage caused by the explosion exceeded $4.5 million. ", Minch: "At no time did she ever say she was involved in the explosion?" 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. She grabbed a few pictures, including the canvas portrait of her daughterat age 5 that hung above the fireplace. Marion County Superior Court Judge Sheila Carlisle sentenced Monserrate Shirley to spend the maximum sentence of 50 years in prison on Tuesday. Shirley says they were his. "We had a lot of parties," the late. She took care of all three. ", Minch: "You said you talked to Ms. Shirley on the 11th. But Im not allowed to say that. Required fields are marked *. For years, the team holed up in that office three days a week to avoid being distracted by other ongoing cases. Dion and Jennifer Longworth, two occupants in the house at 8355 Fieldfare Way, died in the explosion; seven others were injured. She now faces 20-50 years, though a judge has the right to suspend some, or all of that time. The Version table provides details related to the release that this issue/RFE will be addressed. Shirley struck a plea deal with prosecutors and was sentenced to 50 years in prison. John Shirley, her ex-husband, who owns the home with her, told The Associated Press that he believed the home's faulty furnace could have led to the explosion. Its about not letting the person who was watching your game die ever have a say in your game. She was crying and hysterical and said the house blew up.". Hults faces no prison time to three years . 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. Again, she said, "Because I was not able to tell him 'no'." Until shed agreed and signed on the dotted line, there were things I could not tell them. 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. The couple says their neighbor Bob Leonard was led away for questioning. She asked that Mark and Bob switch it back out for the nicer version. He told her one of the reasons she needed to upgrade the policy was he planned to bring in some nicer things and do some work around the house to improve it and they would need the extra coverage to match the upgrades. It wasnt the only curveball Black and Shircliff would throw at the prosecution. 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. 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. But she had no hesitation when asked to identify the Longworths as her neighbors. "I have everybody telling me stuff that they said on the TV," she said. On Monday, November 5, they changed out the thermostat for a "cheaper" model. Every day I ask myself why I didnt stop this. "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.". [12] Though the trio was eligible for the death penalty under Indiana law, prosecutors chose to pursue life sentences without parole because they believed a jury would be unlikely to impose the death penalty without any evidence that the suspects intended to cause the deaths. Monserrate Shirley agreed to testify against Mark Leonard as part of a plea agreement to reduce her potential prison time. It had three gas appliances - the water heater, the furnace and the fireplace. 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 Monserrate got the house in the divorce. Shirley is originally from Puerto Rico. Holts invited Leonard and Shirley to his friend's house for a pool party in the Geist neighborhood. The third weekends attempt was the one that killed the Longworths. Her sister had lived in the same housing complex. Shirley said she has been reeling from the pain of people blaming her for the tragic event. Jeffrey Wager and IMPD investigators, Lt. Mario Garza and IFD investigators, agents of the Federal ATF, and our trial team for their commitment and perseverance to bring justice for the Richmond Hill residents.. When she told him, Holts said, "Between Mark and Gary, they're going to blow up the whole neighborhood.". 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. They moved into a home they built in Richmond Hill toward the end of 2003. The defense attorney told the judge without the jury in the room that he planned to use the video to show that Shirley had the same demeanor in the courtroom as she did while lying to reporters. The human toll is harder to estimate. 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. Once the trial began, rather than trying to claim their client was innocent, Black and Shircliff instead told the jury up front that he was guilty but of trying to start a small fire, not cause an explosion. Shirley said she recalled telling them two innocent people die out of this.THIS HAS TO BE DONE. She talked about being Catholic and said it was in God's hands, but still, they should be punished.". Much of Tuesdays testimony included accounts of Shirleys difficult childhood. This time, Mark and Bob talked alone while Monserrate left to pick up her daughter. 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. No one, Shirley replied, crying.I WAS IN LOVE WITH HIM. The sentence accounts for time served and good. You were a neighbor and you were a friend, Carlisle said. Shirley and Leonard had gone on television on multiple occasions following the blast to state their innocence, and to ask for privacy. 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. For one: She had earned a reputation as a master liar, as Mark Leonards defense team would later call her. [2] Over sixty firefighters responded to the blaze. His defense team admitted that the blaze had been intentionally set, but told jurors it was only intended to be a small fire and that murder was never his intention. [6] Prosecutors also allege that he offered the hit man a $5,000 bonus if he made the murder look like a suicide. No one deserved what happened. This time, Shirley's daughterwas at home, but she was upstairs. She was the nurse. When she left that morning, her daughterand Snowball were still there (Mark was going to take them to school and the kennel). The topic came up again around July 4. Carter would testify that her emotions and demeanor seemed normal at the time, for someone whose house had just blown up. . 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. Shirleys apology rang hollow to many Richmond Hill residents in the courtroom. "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. [38], Gary Thompson pled guilty to conspiracy to commit arson and was sentenced to 30 years in prison. At the time of the explosion, Shirley says he was living in Noblesville. "I mean, I'm totally devastated like my neighbors are.". Shirley testified that friends called and told her there was a huge explosion. Defense attorney Ted Minch on cross-examination: "You're not happy to be here today." 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. Psychologist Dr. Stephanie Callaway diagnosed her with dependent personality disorder, but stated under cross-examination that, while the diagnosis explains Shirley's actions, it does not absolve her of responsibility. 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. At one point you replaced the thermostat." Download the RTV6 app to get the latest live blog posts as the proceedings unfold. The next time, Monserrate Shirley said Mark Leonards brother, Bob, was supposed to carry out the plan. monserrate is a real-life cousin of Shirley, and its said that her daughter monserrate will be taking us on when we die. But a whole days-worth of potential jurors would end up tainted anyway not by media coverage, but by Leonards defense team. She went to a bar on the south side of Indianapolis in November 2011 and they immediately noticed each other. They went to the casino and waited for the call that a fire had broken out, but again, the call never came. She would sit with him, eat and drink and occasionally play slot machines. Shirley met Mark Leonard. As his court date neared, the workload ramped up. To begin the day, Monserrate Shirley explained how she and Mark Leonard met. FORT WAYNE, Ind. But in this case, Monserrate Shirley had already received leniency from the state when she entered into a plea agreement that dismissed a total of 50 charges, including murder. And I wanted to be able to tell them everything., TRANSCRIPT | The full testimony of Monserrate Shirley. In her sentencing order, Judge Sheila Carlisle repeatedly stressed that Shirley could have stopped the plan at any time but didnt. That's whatwe'll be asking the jury to consider.". 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. 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. After the second failed attempt to burn the home, Monserrate Shirley said she went to the home of Glenn Hults to pick up her daughter. Shortly thereafter I moved some furniture into the apartment. She never got a call, though. While Shirley said he lost a lot, he pointed out the toll was much greater on his then-13-year-old daughter Brook. In the game of death, monserrate daughter is the only way to be reunited with the game of life. More: Richmond Hill: 'The scars still remain', More: Richmond Hill explosion: 'It's the toughest thing I've ever done in my career', More: Richmond Hill explosion: 7 keys that solved the case. She transferred from her job in Michigan to the VA hospital in Indianapolis, where she worked for 17 years, focusing in the ICU. She didnt know anyone died, she said. Jurors will later hear that the golf bags and clubs were found at Bob Leonard's home after the explosion. 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. We are sure to have a lot more weird coincidences in the next few days, but this one is pretty crazy. . One year of his sentences wassuspended, and the rest was to be split between jail and work release. [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". Most importantly, Shirleys testimony would further tip the scales against the Leonard brothers. 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 she wept while speaking publicly for the first time about the horrific incident. Many Git commands accept both tag and branch names, so creating this branch may cause unexpected behavior. ", Holts then asked who would get the money if they went through with it and Mark said, "Of course, me. The home also had a microwave above the stove which had a programmable timer. Mark started telling Shirley they needed to get their stories straight before police started asking questions. Mark was a handsome man with sex appeal and a lot of money, judging by his stash of cash and fast luxury cars. The cat, nicknamed Snowy, was a birthday gift for their daughter, he said, and "she misses him.". I went into the breakroom and texted my ex about what happened. Shirley and her boyfriend Mark Leonard were out of town for the weekend while her 12-year-old daughter stayed with friends. And the water heater." [13] A fourth person, Gary Thompson, was charged in January 2015 on the same charges. The home of Monserrate Shirley was the center of the explosion that resulted in the deaths of next-door neighbors John "Dion" Longworth and his wife Jennifer (ne Buxton), the injuries of seven others, and $4 million in property damage. More than one-third of the families who lived in the neighborhood on the night of the blast have since moved away for good. 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. She lived in the four-bedroom, two-and-a-half-bath home with her daughter. They had left town the night before, after Ms. Shirley's nursing shift at a local. 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. [30] He died on January 30, 2018, at an Indianapolis hospital, aged 48, of natural causes. She has already been behind bars for four years. Shirley said she has a condition with her tear ducts that makes her unable to produce tears, so people dont think Im crying for real.. [20] The trials started in 2015. The case was expected to be the largest and most expensive trial in Marion County history. "You face one, you get over one and you've got another one all the way until the end. 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. I don't want anyone to get hurt," then started cooking dinner. When a defense attorney comes out and says, My client didnt do anything at all, but you clearly can show they did, then usually its going to be an all-or-nothing verdict, Robinson said. News, information &. Marion County Superior Court Judge Sheila Carlisle sentenced Monserrate Shirley to spend the maximum sentence of 50 years in prison on Tuesday. As of summer 2022 the show has aired sixteen . Prosecutors alleged that the natural gas explosion was intentionally set to collect insurance money. He gave her $3,000 to use, and they lost it all. Prosecutors alleged Leonard was the mastermind behind the explosion, plotting with his. The first time Gary Thompson first came over to discuss starting a fire, she told him, "I'm ready, as long is this is a small fire. Indiana sheriffs deputy dies after falling ill during training, Myles Colvin captivates Heritage Christian crowds, preps for Purdue. I didnt give it any credibility. By this time, Shirley's daughterhad noticed her portrait was no longer above the fireplace and asked Monserrate about it. Follow us on Twitter at @AOLRealEstate, or connect with AOL Real Estate on Facebook and Pinterest. The two divorced on July 25, 2011. [6] Her attorneys argued that she was trapped in an abusive relationship and was coerced by Mark Leonard into participating in the crime. [10] Included on the probable cause affidavit were complaints from several women claiming that Leonard scammed them out of thousands of dollars. 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. SOUTH BEND, Ind. Monserrate Shirley, 51, was one of five people charged in the explosion that left two people dead. Officials did not release further information regarding his death. Federal grand jury indicts man on hate crime charges after he allegedly shot 2 Jewishmen in Los Angelesin February, Pot vote has Oklahoma hungry to rake in green from Texas, Indonesia fuel depot fire kills 18, over dozen missing, Fishers firefighters assist car flipped NB over I-69. Shirley would receive over $300,000 in insurance money for the replacement of the home as well as personal items. In addition to his roofing business, Mastercraft, Leonard also flipped cars on the side. It was unclear when the complaint was made and whether the utility company was alerted. They decided to cut a piece of cardboard to block off the chimney path. 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." He said that his daughter had mentioned that the furnace wasn't . That was the last time she saw Bob before they were arrested. In exchange, she offered him the money in her 401K. The couple's steamy relationship lasted for about a month before they moved in together. 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. This may help explain why this dish is beloved by patrons like myself. Wednesday in court, Shirley said that at the July 4th pool party, she called lighting the house on fire crazy. For her cooperation with the prosecutions of the Leonard brothers, and the information she provided that led to the convictions of Hults and Thompson, Monserrate Shirley was spared the possibility of life without parole. Monserrate Shirley cried at various points Wednesdaybut didnt shed any actual tears. This type of trial is unusual but not unheard of, and had been used in the trial of the Menendez brothers. Will they get to the felony murder?. Monserrate Shirley said Mark Leonard was very, very mad., Mark Leonard said, Were going to do it again. John did all the maintenance on the home - she never did any. [6] They had arranged for Shirley's 12-year-old daughter to stay with friends and had boarded their cat, Snowball, for the weekend. ", Minch: "You've had problems over the years with the furnace and the water heater. Powerball winner sold in central Indiana! [1] Thirty-three homes were damaged severely enough to require demolition. It's also possible she will walk free if the judge sentences. Everything's under control.". The man he called was actually an undercover agent. 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. She agreed that's what happened, but insisted she only said what Mark told her to say. I certainly might feel bad for his family. He was going to bring Thompson to their house so she could say she was okay to move forward, too. She will be 72 years old. Follow his reporting on Twitter at @Jordan_RTV6 or on Facebook. 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. | ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Monserrate "Moncy" Shirley, a nurse, owned the home at the center of the explosion. On Friday, October 26, Leonard told Shirley to get anything sentimental out of the house. Too little, too late, said Jennifer Longworths father, Don Buxton. 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 girlwas already out of the house while they cleared it of the sentimental items. Should we not use all those witnesses? [The residents] clearly knew the Leonards were the bad actors, and that we needed to do everything we could to get to them, Robinson said. "Everybody's pointing a finger at me like I did something wrong," Shirley said in a video posted on the Indianapolis Star newspaper's website. While there had been some communications early on, we were not willing to offer Monserrate Shirley a significant deal for her cooperation, Robinson said. 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. That hit man was later revealed to be an agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. At least half a dozen marriages in the Richmond Hill neighborhood ended in divorce in the years immediately following the blast. 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. 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. 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. Once they were alone, Leonard, Holts and Shirley started talking about the fire again while they sat around the pool drinking beer. The first attempt was supposed to be carried out by Gary Thompson, but it failed. [27], Mark Leonard's trial began in June 2015.

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