RICHMOND HILL TRIAL OF BOB LEONARD – DAY 14
9:24 a.m. – Mark Duckworth called as a witness by the prosecution.
Duckworth says he met Mark Leonard 25 years ago. Their friendship was off and on over that period.
Duckworth says he spoke with Mark Leonard over the phone on the Wednesday before the explosion: "Mark told me he was shopping for a Ferrari. I asked how he could afford a Ferrari. He said tsunami winds came down the chimney and blew his house up and he was gonna get $300,000."
Duckworth: "He said he was living in an efficiency. I called him and asked him if we was still living in the efficiency and he said, 'Oh no, no. That was all made up.'"
Duckworth says Mark Leonard texted him on Nov. 10, 2012, that he "hopes everything is going alright in my life and that he loves me."
Duckworth says he texted Mark after the explosion: "I think I texted him, 'I think you made the news.' I never talked to him again after that."
Duckworth said prior to the explosion, Mark had asked him "if I wanted to burn my Harley and put it in his garage. I said no, I like it."
Duckworth says the last time he saw Mark Leonard was when Leonard and Dave Gill were going to a casino: "I was told by Glen Hultz that Mark had lost his last $15,000. That's when all the wheels started turning."
Defense attorney Ted Minch on cross-examination: "Dave Gill is someone you know very well."
Duckworth: "Not very well. I tried to keep my distance. He was shady."
Minch: "Dave Gill was someone you identified in this case as somebody who should be looked at."
Duckworth: "That's correct."
Minch: "How would you characterize the relationship between Mark Leonard and Monserrate Shirley?"
Duckworth: "He called the shots and she puppied along."
Minch: "But she wasn't a person who would do anything for him?"
Duckworth: "Oh yeah she would."
10:05 a.m. – Justin Leonard called as witness by the prosecution.
Leonard walks in handcuffed and in a jail uniform. He says he's facing a charge out of Hendricks County.
Leonard says his relationship with his uncle Mark was "nonexistent." "I only met him a few times in my life." He says his dad and uncle were much closer.
Leonard says he received a phone call on his girlfriend Jessica Goodwin's phone from his father asking him to come to his trailer.
Leonard: "He said there was an explosion. Mark and his girlfriend were living in a motel. He asked me to take some things. Just until they got back on their feet, is what I was told."
Leonard says he was asked to take several totes and a briefcase. The totes had pictures of a Hispanic female in them. He now thinks the pictures were of Monserrate Shirley. He was also asked to take a bag of golf clubs and a driver in a box.
Leonard says he got into a fight with his girlfriend and went to his father's house. He "drank himself into a stupor," and woke up to find his father had borrowed his truck.
Leonard says his relationship with his father was strained: "We had a broken relationship. We hadn't talked to each other for about a 10-year stretch. It was getting better, though. We were working on repairing it."
10:36 a.m. – Jessica Goodwin called as witness by the prosecution.
Goodwin says she met Justin Leonard in August 2011.
Goodwin says Justin Leonard received a call from his father Bob to go to Bob's trailer to help him. The white van was at Bob's trailer when they arrived.
Goodwin: "Justin took all of the boxes into the basement. He said nobody was to look at them. Nobody was to touch them. We were to leave them alone."
Goodwin says after Justin moved out, Bob called her: "He said he and Justin had gotten into a physical altercation and Justin was passed out drunk. He wanted to know if he could pick up the boxes."
Goodwin says Bob Leonard opened the driver box on the way out of her house and said, "He look, isn't this cool? I'm taking up golfing!"
Goodwin says she contacted police after seeing the white van on the news.
12:00 p.m. -- Court recesses for lunch.
1:15 p.m. – Lisa Prater, Marion County Crime Lab crime scene specialist, called as a witness by the prosecution.
Prater says she processed the white van owned by Mark Leonard.
Prater says a rotary saw, a gasoline can and 19 packs of cigarettes were found in the van.
1:43 p.m. – Donald Stephen Toth, Marion County Crime Lab crime scene supervisor, called as a witness by the prosecution.
Toth said he had to take over responsibility for the case after another crime scene specialist left the Crime Lab.
Toth identifies DNA swabs taken by the Crime Lab of the white van.
2:00 p.m. – Daniel Recker, latent fingerprint examiner, called as a witness by the prosecution.
Recker asked to explain latent fingerprints – any print lifted from a crime scene, he says. Recker also briefly explains the characteristics of fingerprints used to match them.
Recker says he fingerprinted Mark Leonard in December 2012. Copies of those fingerprints are entered into evidence.
Recker says he compared Leonard's prints to the latent prints found on cigarette packs in the white van and determined them to be a match.
Recker says all of the identifiable fingerprints in the case were linked to Mark Leonard.
Recker says he wasn't asked to compare Gary Thompson's or Glen Hultz's fingerprints to those found in the van.
2:44 p.m. – IMPD Det. Sgt. Jeff Wager recalled as witness by the prosecution.
Wager says he served a search warrant at Bob Leonard's trailer, where he found blue totes and John Shirley's golf clubs.
Wager says limited arrest warrants were obtained for Mark and Bob Leonard, Glen Hultz and Dave Gill for him to obtain cheek swabs and fingerprints.
3:50 p.m. – Court adjourns for the day.
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Call 6 Investigator Rafael Sanchez and Senior Digital Correspondent Jordan Fischer will be in Fort Wayne covering the trial every day. Download the RTV6 app to get the latest live blog posts as the proceedings unfold.
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RELATED LINKS | Richmond Hill Special Section | Mark Ray Leonard convicted on all counts
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