Man pleads guilty in explosion case

The prosecutor will ask the judge to order restitution, but doesn’t know if Shelley has any money.

STAFF report

WARREN — Donald F. Shelley of Girard has pleaded guilty to charges that could land him in prison for 241‚Ñ2 years for causing an explosion that damaged 50 Girard homes and injured at least four people Sept. 18, 2008.

Shelley, appearing in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court on Thursday before Judge John M. Stuard, pleaded guilty to two counts of aggravated arson, one count of vandalism and one count of burglary.

Mike Burnett, an assistant Trumbull County prosecutor, said Shelley has not been offered a specific sentence in exchange for the guilty pleas.

Shelley, 25, of 426 North Avenue, will be sentenced in about four to six weeks, after the Trumbull County Adult Probation Department conducts a presentence investigation.

Police say Shelley stole scrap metal from a home on Washington Street, which damaged a gas line that led to the explosion and fire. The explosion leveled that unoccupied home and set a neighboring home on fire.

At about 6:15 p.m. Sept. 18, residents in the immediate, and not so immediate, area of the Washington Avenue home near Church Hill Road were pulled from the dinner table, outdoor activities and evening television by the explosion that could be heard and felt about a mile away.

About 50 families living near the explosion were affected by the blast with shattered windows in their homes and foundations that shifted with the force. Neighbors spent several days digging out from under the rubble.

Denise Seitz and her family lost everything they owned in the fire touched off by the explosion.

Seitz lived in the home adjacent to the house that exploded. She, along with her mother and two children, were pulled from the house as it began to burn to the ground.

Police have said they believe Shelley was aware that the house had been filling up with gas sometime before the structure actually blew up.

Burnett said he will ask Judge Stuard to order that Shelley pay restitution, but he doesn’t know whether the judge will order restitution and doesn’t know whether Shelley has any money.

He said losses from the explosion total more than $500,000.