Trial begins in fatal 2012 Ind. home explosion case

SOUTH BEND, Ind. — In the first day of the trial of a man charged with murder and arson in the case of a fatal November 2012 home explosion in Indianapolis, jurors heard about the calm before and the chaos after the explosion.

A fall Saturday in surburbia that settled into a quiet night. Then, just after 11 p.m. on Nov. 10, 2012, an explosion blew that peace away.

Two people dead — one instantly, the other slowly, painfully. Family heirlooms and pets lost. Dozens of homes damaged or destroyed.

The South Bend trial of Mark Leonard, the lead suspect in what his own attorney called "a stupid and selfish insurance fraud that went horribly wrong," will probably feature many contentious moments over the next six weeks. But it opened Monday with agreement from both sides that the Richmond Hill neighborhood on the Southeastside of Indianapolis has been made to suffer greatly.

The question facing jurors, who were chosen from a county 150 miles north of the explosion's epicenter in hopes they could give the case a fair hearing, is whether Leonard, previously only a small-time criminal, led a plot that destroyed a neighborhood and killed a husband and his wife.

Marion County Deputy Prosecutor Denise Robinson began her opening statement by describing "one of those gorgeous fall days" when people don't think about the winter ahead.

About 200 people had to be evacuated when the house at 8349 Fieldfare Way, located in the heart of the neighborhood, exploded.

"Seven streets. One small subdivision with 80-some homes," said Robinson. "You'll hear from many of the residents because virtually every house was affected in that subdivision."

The prosecution's case is to prove that Leonard conspired to blow up his ex-girlfriend's house to collect about $300,000 in insurance money.

Diane Black, the chief trial deputy for the Marion County Public Defender, didn't try to minimize the devastation suffered by the Richmond Hill neighborhood. She highlighted it.

Black said children were left unable to sleep well at night and residents lost their sense of safety. Regarding the two deaths, Jennifer Longworth "mercifully" was killed instantly, but her husband was less fortunate. John Dion Longworth was trapped under the debris. Firefighters struggled to save him but had to be pulled back, leaving them and neighbors to watch him die in a scene she said all of them will have to live with.

"It's going to cry out from your heart to mete out the strongest punishment that you possibly could based on the results," Black said.

Instead, she said, it is important that jurors focus not on the results but on the responsibility.

Black seemed to single out one of the state's star witnesses, Monserrate Shirley, Leonard's ex-girlfriend. It was Shirley, Black said, who owned the house, who boarded her cat and who sent her daughter off to be with a babysitter the night of the explosion.

But after the explosion Shirley denied her involvement, even granting interviews to local media. Shirley only acknowledged her role in the plot two years after her arrest, Black said, when her attorney arranged a plea deal for her that could "conceivably" allow her to go free after she testifies against Leonard.

Prosecutors allege that Leonard; his half brother, Robert Leonard Jr.; Shirley; and his former employee Gary Thompson conspired to blow up Shirley's Richmond Hill home. The day of the explosion, prosecutors say, the home was filled with natural gas and ignited with a timing device on a microwave. A fifth suspect, Glenn Hults, was accused of knowing of the scheme months before the blast.

Robinson summed up the case by saying: "This is about greed. This is about money. This is about wanting to get that money."

The defense team was the first to address what Black last week called "the elephant in the room" — the allegation that Leonard tried to hire a hit man to take out a key witness in the case. Black called it a "desperate and delusional plot."

The defense attorneys tried for a year to keep evidence about the hit man from reaching jurors. Judge John Marnocha has ruled, at every turn, that the evidence may enter in. So, on Monday, Black brought it up.

She said the scheme to kill a witness was cooked up by jailhouse informant Robert Smith, whom she described as being on the police payroll for drug buys, but someone arrested many times himself. She described him as someone who "trades in information and manipulates people who are desperate."

Jurors, Black said, will hear Leonard on the phone talking with an undercover Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agent who is posing as a hit man.

"In desperation," she said, "Mark Leonard makes these calls and thinks he is going to get out of jail."

Robinson acknowledged that jurors have been given a burdensome task — understanding the science behind natural gas and hearing what will likely be emotional statements from explosion victims.

"Some of the evidence we've discussed will be difficult," Robinson said. "Death … is an ugly business."

Contributing: Jill Disis, The Indianapolis Star.