Man, woman accused of tossing incendiary device into Winton Hills grocery store
Two people are facing federal charges in connection with an incendiary device being launched into a local grocery store late last year.
Donald Donatelli, 28, and Angela Schweitzer, 35, are charged in federal court in Cincinnati with conspiring to commit malicious damage and destruction of a building in interstate commerce.
Donatelli is facing an additional charge related to directly causing the damage. Court records show the charges were filed in March but unsealed Wednesday.
In November, Donatelli threw a Molotov cocktail-style incendiary device into the Tree Top Grocery in Spring Grove Village while the owner and his wife were inside the store, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Ohio.
Donatelli and Schweitzer arrived at the store together in a white BMW, with Schweitzer acting as the getaway driver after Donatelli threw the device inside the store, officials said.
A month after the incident, Union Township police arrested Donatelli on open warrants while he was driving a white BMW, a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives special agent wrote in an affidavit.
Donatelli was also captured on surveillance footage arriving at the store in a white BMW and walking around inside several hours before the fire was started, according to the court document
Investigators later uncovered a Snapchat video Schweitzer sent to Donatelli of a man dressed in black approaching the store's front glass doors and throwing something inside causing an "explosive fire," the special agent said.
While the fire was quickly contained and extinguished, smoke harmed many of the store's products, resulting in roughly $300,000 in damages, Cincinnati Fire Department officials said. No one was injured in the blaze.
Federal court records did not list attorney information for either Donatelli or Schweitzer as of the publication of this report. While the pair were originally arrested on local charges, they've since been moved to federal custody.
If convicted as charged, Donatelli and Schweitzer face a possible prison sentence of at least five years and up to 20 years, officials said.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Pair charged after incendiary device tossed into local grocery store
