Witness statement: Leonard asked about filling a residence with gas

SOUTH BEND, Ind. (WISH) – Prosecutors in the Richmond Hill trial are just beginning their work to link defendant Mark Leonard to the deadly 2012 explosion.

Jurors heard more about Mark Leonard Monday than they have in the past several weeks of testimony. Prosecutors started to show jurors his whereabouts, and what he said and did the night of the explosion.

Jurors in the Richmond Hill trial also learned Monday exactly where and how prosectors believe the 2012 explosion occurred.

Over the past few weeks, jurors have seen hundreds of items of evidence, seen the pictures of the debris, and have heard about how the fire investigation at the scene worked.

They’ve heard about natural gas, when it would be flammable, and what a possible ignition source may have been.

Monday, lead fire investigator Lt. Mario Garza with IFD brought it all back together for jurors.

Origin and cause of the explosion

Monday morning, prosecutors took Garza back through his investigation and the methods he used to eventually find his hypothesis: the cause and origin of the explosion.

He equated it to going into the basement and if your light doesn’t come on – what do you do first? First, you change the bulb. If that doesn’t work, you look for another solution to the problem. He says that’s what he was doing as he worked to find the cause and origin.

Garza explained how he’d disregarded numerous possibilities of the cause of the fire at the scene: it wasn’t a plane crash, a meth lab, lightning strike, and then later, he learned it wasn’t a gas leak from outside of the home.

He explained to prosecutors how investigators zeroed in on Monserrate Shirley’s home, where the explosion occurred.

He said the remnants of that home were scattered in a 360 degree pattern around the neighborhood.

He also said he looked at the anchor bolts, connected to the foundation of the home. He said those were pointing in an outward direction: meaning to him, the blast came from inside and pushed its way outside.

Garza discussed again the methodical nature of the investigation at the scene to sift carefully through the debris, picking up pieces by hand, then sifting through everything twice.

He said they searched yards all around the neighborhood, even looking on rooftops for anything out of the ordinary.

He said while he found a lot of computers and tablets in the debris, at the Shirley home, “I found a lot of remote controls, but I didn’t see any TV’s.”

Prosecutors will later work to show jurors Shirley and Leonard removed some important items from the home before the explosion.

Lt. Garza then explained to jurors how he’d ruled out the gas furnace and the gas water heater as potential causes of the explosion, explaining how he’d zeroed in on the log lighter fireplace – where the gas shut-off valve was missing.

He also discussed what is needed for an explosion: natural gas, within the flammability range of 5-15 percent, oxygen, and an ignition source.

He said, “Somewhere in that house, was that perfect mixture, and the house exploded.”

Garza also explained the different potential ignition sources he’d considered: including candles, a thermostat, the igniter for the furnace, and that microwave and cylinder.

He explained to the jury, “Anytime you put anything metal in the microwave… it’s going to spark and create a potential ignition source.”

He added, “It was my opinion there was an internal force that pushed the microwave components in an outward position.”

“Something exploded inside the microwave,” he explained.

Prosecutors also showed him the manual for the microwave they’d found at the scene.

He said from that manual, he found that you could program the microwave to come on, at a later time. He said, you could even put the microwave on a 24-hour delay.

Prosecutors also showed him multiple cylinders found at the scene: showing him one that had exploded, and the other two that did not and were simply burnt from the fire.

Prosecutors then took him through the manifold, the gas system at the Shirley’s home. He said the lines were intact there, but he noticed the step-down regulator (that controls the pressure of gas to the home) was missing, and had been replaced by a piece of pipe.

Garza said he was on site about 20 days, first conducting his investigation, then as the insurance company conducted its investigation.

Prosecutors also showed him different parts of the Shirley’s fireplace, asking “Was everything relating to that fireplace ultimately recovered?”

Everything but that shut off valve, he explained (the gas shut-off valve to the fireplace was never recovered.)

He also said, based on the condition of the wall stud that the valve should have been connected to, “the valve was removed before the explosion.”

More on the cause and origin of the explosion would be heard after a lunch break in South Bend.

Alleged extramarital affair?

Before jurors came out, Judge John Marnocha also ruled on a ‘motion in limine’ by the prosecution. He said at this point, he won’t allow the defense to bring up any alleged extramarital affairs they say Monserrate Shirley was having.

Shirley should testify later this week.

Defense attorney Diane Black told the judge Shirley was blackmailing a doctor who she’d had an affair with, and getting ‘hush money.’

Black said that goes to show that Shirley was capable of manipulation.

The judge said he didn’t believe it was relevant at this point, and he granted the motion in limine, saying that wasn’t a final ruling, just a preliminary one.

Origin and cause of the explosion 

Lt. Mario Garza continued his testimony after lunch Monday.

Prosecutor Denise Robinson walked him through his ‘origin and cause’ report.

He told her there were four categories he could rule his incident as: incendiary (intentional act); accidental, natural (lightning strikes example) or undetermined.

Garza said he ruled this event “incendiary,” meaning intentional.

Robinson also walked Garza through the daily events he’d logged of each day he was at the scene.

November 10 was the night of the explosion, when he first got there.

On November 12, his notes said he found the gas fireplace. November 13, he found the gas log ignitor and parts of the gas log.

Throughout the later days of the investigation, they begin to use a grid system and portion the property closest to the explosion off, into sections.

On November 21, Garza took aerial photos of the scene.

He told jurors he came back December 10 when the insurance company conducted their private investigation.

He found then TV mounts, but no TV’s. He also looked at pictures of the Shirley home before the explosion, to see if they could find anything that was in the home previously in the debris.

He said, he never found a photo that was above the fireplace [We earlier heard testimony about how that was an important photo].

Prosecutors will later explain how they say Leonard and Shirley removed important items and TV’s from the home before the explosion.

Garza said they also sent chunks of the concrete from the home in for testing.

He said he found two samples from the kitchen and living room tested positive for gasoline.

Robinson also took Garza through some of the witness statements he’d included in his report.

Garza said he found it “quite interesting” he [the witness] had had a conversation with Mark Leonard about areas he was searching.

The witness said Leonard specifically talked about the fireplace, about “tsunami winds blowing” and the fireplace, a week before possible explosion.

Another witness told investigators Mr. Leonard and his brother were talking to an employee of Citizens Gas at a bar, about how much gas it would take to fill a residence, and was asking questions about a regulator.

Prosecutors also pointed out that on November 14, investigators spoke with John Shirley, Monserrate Shirley’s ex-husband, who built the home with Monserrate and was able to tell investigators about the gas system at the home, the step down regulator, and what was there, what wasn’t there, and had he removed anything for any reason.

Garza then told jurors his final hypothesis: he said “I felt that the gas was intentionally released into the house and that the explosion was the cause of the death of the two residents known as the Longworths that lived one house south of the residence.”

Defense attorney Diane Black then had a chance to cross-examine Garza.

She asked him about the big task he had been given, calling it “awesome.”

She said, this was your first explosion case.

She also drew his attention, she said, that because of the nature of the investigation into an explosion, there’s no way to point, to any one of those and say … scientifically, that’s the one that was the ignition source.

Garza said, I could not tell you what the actual ignition source was. He added, that’s because there are several, a lot of potential ignition sources.

Deputy Prosecutor Denise Robinson asked him later, If I really wanted to explode my home, could I have set into play two or three or four ignition sources?

Garza said, If you want to get the job done… He added later, there could be more than one at play.

Defense attorney Diane Black also reminded jurors Mark Leonard was at the casino, not at his house that weekend.

She also brought up the fact that there was no testing done on the microwave. Garza said that was because he didn’t feel it was necessary.

Defense attorney Black again brought up the fact that for the first several hours at the explosion site, it was about saving lives, and fire suppression, saying in the very beginning of this, you weren’t focused on preserving the scene and taking pictures, you were worried about saving people’s lives. Garza said that was done at the Olvey and Longworth’s homes, and nothing was happening at the Shirley residence.

Deputy Prosecutor Denise Robinson, while speaking with Garza again, said Mark Leonard at the casino. But she brought up Bob Leonard and Gary Thompson who are also being charged, who were not at the casino.

Police investigation 

Jurors heard for the first time from Detective Sergeant Jeff Wager, who is the lead detective on the case.

He told jurors about the initial moments of the case, explaining who the owner of the home was where the explosion occurred: Monserrate Shirley. He also explained who lived in that home: Shirley, her boyfriend Mark Leonard, her daughter Brooke, and a cat.

He said he learned Shirley and Leonard were at the Hollywood Casino in Lawrenceburg the night of the explosion. He said her daughter Brooke was at the babysitter’s, and Snowball the cat had been taken to the kennel.

We will hear more from Detective Wager as testimony continues.

Detective Randall Cook with IMPD told jurors that he briefly spoke with Leonard and Shirley at Mary Bryan Elementary the night of the explosion (around 3 AM he thought), as he was getting names and addresses of neighbors. He said Shirley was sobbing, and Leonard – without prompting – started talking about how they’d smelled gas recently and had changed their thermostat.

Defense attorney David Shircliff reminded Detective Cook that Leonard had also said during that conversation, that his neighbors had told him there had been a plane crash.

And then, Leonard had added that he smelled gas.

Special Agent Dan Shirley told jurors he had seen a set of golf clubs being taken from Bob Leonard’s trailer as evidence.

Night of the explosion

Jurors heard from the disc jockey at the Hollywood Casino in Lawrenceburg, where Monserrate and Mark Leonard were the night of the explosion.

Travis Bell told jurors he was working at the Hollywood Casino that night, and he didn’t know Mark Leonard. He said he’d known Bob Leonard though, Mark’s half brother, who is also accused in the case.

He described what he called an odd thing, that a bartender walked up with a note from a patron, who said there’s a gentleman who wants to get your attention he says he knows you.

He said Leonard had written on a napkin that it was their anniversary, and asked Bell to announce it.

Bell said he went out to Leonard and Shirley, and Leonard said he knew Bell from living on the south side of Indianapolis. Bell said he didn’t know Leonard but he announced their anniversary for them.

Later in the week, Bell said he saw Leonard and Shirley’s pictures on the news, and contacted police.Monserrate Shirley

Monserrate Shirley, the owner of the home that exploded and Mark Leonard’s girlfriend, is expected to testify Wednesday.

Shirley took a plea agreement in the case, and is expected to link Leonard to the explosion.

“What we’ve said to her, is come in and tell the truth. And if you tell the truth, nothing can shake the truth,” said Deputy Prosecutor Denise Robinson after court Monday evening.

“Her testimony is a piece to a puzzle. As the court made aware, these charges were filed before Monserrate Shirley ever decided to cooperate with the state. So we felt we had a case to go forward with prior to that, well prior to that. But, as I indicated at the time she accepted the plea months ago, she certainly provides some inside information we believe is important for the jury to know,” Robinson added.

Tuesday, jurors can expect to hear from more casino workers, Mark Leonard’s sister, then again the lead detective in the case.