An Indianapolis man was sentenced to prison and probation time, marking the last of five people to be convicted and sentenced in a deadly plot to blow up a southside home in late 2012.
Glenn Hults was sentenced to a year-and-a-half in prison, six months on work release and a year of probation. Hults, 50, had faced between six months and three years in prison when he was sentenced Wednesday in a Marion County court.
He agreed in November to plead guilty to a felony count of assisting a criminal. He reached the plea agreement as jury selection was underway in his trial for conspiracy to commit arson. In exchange, prosecutors agreed to drop the conspiracy charge.
Hults and four others were charged in the November 2012 blast that killed Southwest Elementary School teacher Jennifer Longworth and John “Dion” Longworth, who lived next door to the home that exploded.
Prosecutors said a natural gas line was tampered with and a microwave on a timer was used to ignite the explosion, which damaged or destroyed more than 80 homes in the neighborhood just north of County Line Road.
The four other defendants have already been sentenced. The owner of the home destroyed by the blast, 51-year-old Monserrate Shirley, was sentenced last week to 50 years in prison. She had pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy to commit arson.
Prosecutors said Shirley’s former boyfriend, Mark Leonard, spearheaded the plot to destroy the house with a natural gas explosion to claim $300,000 in insurance money. Leonard was convicted last year of murder, arson and other charges, and received two life sentences without parole, plus 75 years. Leonard has appealed his convictions.
His half brother, Bob Leonard, was convicted in February of murder, arson and other charges, and was sentenced to two consecutive life prison terms without parole, plus 70 years.
Another defendant, Gary Thompson, was sentenced on Dec. 2 to 20 years behind bars after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit arson.
