CINCINNATI — One of two people charged in connection with a destructive fire intentionally sparked through a Molotov cocktail-like incendiary device has agreed to a plea deal, according to federal court documents.
Donald Donatelli, 28, and Angela Schweitzer, 35, were both charged after the Tree Top Grocery in Winton Hills was allegedly set on fire during business hours in November 2023.
Donatelli agreed to plead guilty to one count of malicious damage and destruction of a building in interstate commerce; the other charges against him were dropped in exchange.
According to federal court documents, Donatelli "had a bottle of gasoline with a rag inside" that he lit and threw inside the front doors of the grocery while Schweitzer allegedly filmed him.
"The grocery was open and occupied at the time of the fire," the court documents say.
Co-owner Fesseha Tesfatsion said he was inside the store when the bottle was thrown.
"I immediately came out of the office, I seen fire burning up in here and somehow over here also," he told WCPO while standing in the ruins of his store in November 2023.
CFD said the fire caused $300,000 worth of damage to the building.
Kenneth L. Parker, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio, said around 10 p.m. on Nov. 26, Donatelli and Schweitzer drove to the store in a white BMW. Schweizter then moved to the driver's seat while Donatelli lit a Molotov cocktail-style device, opened the store's door and threw it inside. While he was doing so, Schweitzer allegedly filmed the firebombing on Snapchat.
Schweitzer was arrested in February and charged with two counts of aggravated arson to a person and one count of aggravated arson to an occupied structure following an investigation into the fire.
A 20-page criminal complaint filed in federal court offers new details on what happened that day.
After Donatelli was arrested on December 28, 2023 for unrelated charges of forgery, receiving stolen property and identity fraud in Clermont County, law enforcement seized two cell phones belonging to him, documents say.
A search of the phones found that they were in the proximity of Tree Top Grocery at the time the fire was started, court documents say.
Investigators also reviewed jail calls from the Clermont County Jail, including once when Donatelli spoke with Schweitzer before her arrest. During the conversation, Donatelli, in slightly coded language, asked Schweitzer to delete a video off her phone that she'd taken of him.
From there, investigators obtained a warrant to search through Donatelli's Snapchat accounts, where they found a video sent by Schweitzer that appeared to be filmed from inside a vehicle parked in a parking lot, court documents say.
"At the beginning of the video, a male figure in black approached the front glass doors of a store that looks like the grocery," reads the document. "The male opens one of the glass doors and throws something inside that causes an explosive fire. The male then turns to run towards the vehicle."
A tipster told investigators about the video before that, telling investigators that Donatelli had shown it to him, court documents say.
Documents go on to say Donatelli told that person he'd thrown the lit bottle of gasoline inside the store because "somebody didn't pay up to his dude."
He also told the tipster he didn't get paid for setting the fire, but he did it "out of loyalty to show his N-words the kind of person he is," court documents read.
When the fire happened, it left Tesfatsion confused as to why anyone would target his business, because he said his store is one of very few options for families in the area.
"In here, many kids, they come in when they're hungry. They take stuff, they run away. It's understandable. But somebody throwing fire? Someone thinking like that? I don't think they're human," Tesfatsion said in 2023.
Court documents say attorneys agreed an appropriate sentence for Donatelli following his plea change would be roughly five and a half years, plus three years of supervised release.
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