Richmond Hill trial: Informant says Mark Leonard wanted witness killed

SOUTH BEND - A jailhouse informant testified Thursday that Richmond Hill explosion suspect Mark Leonard wanted and tried to have a witness against him killed while Leonard was incarcerated at the Marion County Jail.

Robert Smith, who was in jail for an escape charge, talked about what prosecutors say was Leonard's plot to kill one of the state's witnesses to get out of jail and his willingness to spend $15,000 for the job. Smith said Leonard told him he wanted Mark Duckworth killed for lying and setting him up. Leonard also asked Smith whether he knew anybody who could do the job, Smith testified.

Smith, who has been a police informant since 1985, testified that he didn't plan to help Leonard and, instead, intended to tell authorities about the plot. He said an officer gave him a phone number of a person named "Jay" and told him to give that information to Leonard. He also said he let Leonard use his personal identification number so that he could make a phone call to Jay.

Jeremy Godsave, a special agent for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, testified that he posed as Jay, the hit man who was supposed to kill Duckworth. In two phone conversations played in court, Leonard can be heard talking to Jay about a map he drew for him and giving him directions to Duckworth's address, including information about his car and neighbors. Leonard told Jay to use the back door to get in, according to the audio.

Prosecutors say the hit man was told he would receive an additional $5,000 if he could force Duckworth to call 911 and make him say he lied to detectives about the explosion. The hit man also was supposed to make the death look like a suicide.

In the audio of the second phone conversation, Leonard can be heard telling Jay, "I want him (Duckworth) to say, 'I did not mean to frame Mark and Moncie for their own house in Richmond Hills.'"

Before opening statements began, Leonard's defense team tried to exclude evidence of the murder-for-hire scheme from the trial. During jury selection, public defender Diane Black revealed the hit man scheme, and all of the prospective jurors said they believe Leonard was guilty. The defense team argued that the evidence should be excluded because it would prejudice jurors to the point that they couldn't give a fair hearing to the rest of the case. St. Joseph Superior Court Judge John Marnocha said, however, that the evidence couldn't be excluded just because it could be damaging.

Before testimony began Thursday, Leonard's defense team also unsuccessfully tried to prevent Smith from testifying. They had alleged that it was Smith who cooked up the murder-for-hire scheme and that he was feeding Leonard antidepressants and other drugs in jail and convinced him that it would be a good idea to have a key witness killed.

Under questioning by public defender David Shircliff, Smith, who was in the same cell block as Leonard, repeatedly denied giving away his medications. Smith has had prior convictions for theft and forgery.

Shircliff also questioned Smith about his motivations for being a police informant. In Leonard's case, Shircliff said Smith wanted to get out of jail and, possibly, be on a TV show, given the case's notoriety. Smith denied all of those allegations. He said that while he also loves getting paid for his information, he did not get paid for giving investigators information about Leonard.

Smith said Leonard began talking to him after he was arrested in late 2012. Leonard talked about the Richmond Hill explosion, his then-girlfriend, Monserrate Shirley, and his half-brother, Robert Leonard Jr.

Smith also testified that Mark Leonard told him that Bob Leonard was "supposed to step on a gas line and put a crack in it" but he "put too much force on it" and ended up breaking it. Smith also said Mark Leonard talked to him about using a microwave as a timing device and about the $300,000 in insurance claims.

After testimony Thursday, Shircliff maintained that evidence of the murder-for-hire scheme should not have been introduced and was a constitutional violation. He also said that his client intended for a small fire to happen, not a fatal explosion.

Before testimony began, Shircliff also argued for a mistrial based on information from testimony that Shirley, one of the prosecution's key witnesses, made on Wednesday. Marnocha denied that motion.

This latest motion for a mistrial echoes two previous ones filed by Leonard's public defenders. It alleges that prosecutors deliberately withheld vital information from the defense team before the trial began. The motion is based on Shirley's testimony that Leonard told her after the explosion that he had removed the "stepdown valve" from her home and threw it away so no one else would find it.

Earlier witnesses testified that the stepdown regulator from the gas manifold in Shirley's home was removed and replaced with a black pipe. The shutoff valve in Shirley's fireplace also was removed before the explosion.

Leonard, 46, is on trial on 53 felony charges, including murder, arson and conspiracy to commit arson. Prosecutors allege he masterminded a scheme to blow up Shirley's house at 8349 Fieldfare Way in the Southeastside subdivision to collect about $300,000 in insurance claims. They say natural gas was released into the home and was ignited with a timing device on a microwave.

Shircliff said Shirley's knowledge of the piece of equipment being removed was known to prosecutors and was not disclosed to the defense team during the discovery phase. Shircliff said the defense's opening statement, their questioning of Shirley during her deposition, their cross-examination of her and their defense strategy all would have been done differently if they had known that information.

"The point is we have a constitutional right to (a) fair defense and that defense is based on what the state has discovered to us," Shircliff said. "We base our whole strategy on that."

Marion County Deputy Prosecutor Mark Hollingsworth said there was no basis for a mistrial. He said the removal of the stepdown regulator by Leonard or any of the other co-defendants was known to the defense team and was included in the factual basis filed by prosecutors. He said Shirley's knowledge of that piece of equipment being removed came up during her deposition in April — after she had accepted a plea deal — and defense attorneys and prosecutors found out about it at the same time.

"This is not a fact which the state knew ahead of time," Hollingsworth said, adding that although Shirley had mentioned it, she does not know what a stepdown regulator is or how significant its removal was.

Shircliff responded by saying it's "very troubling" that prosecutors offered Shirley a plea agreement without knowing she had knowledge of the equipment being removed.

Marnocha agreed with prosecutors that they did not deliberately hide information.

Shirley's next-door neighbors, John Dion and Jennifer Longworth, died in the Nov. 10, 2012 explosion, which also injured about a dozen other residents and damaged or destroyed more than 80 homes.

Prosecutors have said that they will rest their case either on July 8 or 9. Jurors likely will begin deliberating on July 13, Monday.

Star reporter Robert King contributed to this story.

Call Star reporter Kristine Guerra at (317) 444-6209. Follow her on Twitter: @kristine_guerra.