FORT WAYNE, Ind. -- Bob Leonard's son says his father called him days after the Richmond Hill Explosion saying he had something he needed his help with.
Justin Leonard testified Friday in Fort Wayne at his father's trial on 51 charges in connection with the explosion.
The younger Leonard, brought in handcuffed and in a jail uniform due to pending charges in Hendricks County unrelated to the case, said he and his father had been estranged.
"We'd had a broken relationship," Justin said. "We hadn't talked to each other for about a 10-year stretch. It was getting better, though. We were working on repairing it."
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Leonard says his father called him on his girlfriend's cellphone a few days after the explosion asking him to come to his house. When he arrived, Bob Leonard asked his son to take some things that belonged to his uncle Mark.
"He said there was an explosion," Leonard said. "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."
Justin testified Friday that his relationship with his uncle was "nonexistent."
"I only met him a few times in my life," he said.
Justin said he looked inside one of the totes his father handed him and saw a Hispanic woman he didn't recognize. He said Friday he now believes the pictures were of Monserrate Shirley.
Jessica Goodwin, Justin Leonard's now-ex-girlfriend, said she went to Bob Leonard's trailer with her boyfriend, but didn't look inside the containers they picked up.
"Justin took all of the boxes into the basement," she said. "He said nobody was to look at them. Nobody was to touch them. We were to leave them alone."
Goodwin said Bob Leonard later came to pick the items up after she and Justin got into a fight. Both she and Justin said they never saw any of the items again after that.
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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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