CINCINNATI — The man who threw a Molotov cocktail-like incendiary device into a Winton Hills grocery store in 2023 was sentenced in federal court Wednesday, court records show.
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 accepted a plea deal in October. He 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.
Judge Matthew McFarland sentenced Donatelli to 66 months, or 5 and a half years, in prison. That sentence will run concurrently with other, unrelated, charges out of Clermont County. After Donatelli is released from prison, he will be on probation for 3 more years, McFarland ruled.
Court records show Schweitzer, who filmed Donatelli as he threw "a bottle of gasoline with a tag inside" through the front doors of the grocery, has also accepted a plea deal. She has agreed to plead guilty on January 27 to one count of superseding information and her other charges were dropped.
According to court records, Schweitzer was remanded to the custody of US Marshals, "pending availability in an inpatient facility."
In November 2023, the Tree Top Grocery in Winton Hills was severely damaged by the fire that happened after Donatelli threw the incendiary device.
"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.
The Cincinnati Fire Department 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 filmed the firebombing on Snapchat.
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, federal court 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.
Hear from the owner of the grocery store after the fire happened:
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.
See the grocery store now, after it's re-opened following the fire:
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.
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