Defendant pleads guilty to throwing incendiary device, causing fire in local grocery store

CINCINNATI - A local man pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court here today to damaging a Spring Grove Village grocery store with an incendiary device in the style of a Molotov cocktail.

Donald Donatelli, 28, currently of Batavia, admitted to causing malicious damage and destruction of a building in interstate commerce. The plea agreement includes a recommended sentence of 66 months in prison.

According to court documents, at approximately 10pm on Nov. 26, 2023, Donatelli threw the incendiary device into the store while the store's owner and his wife were inside. The store was open at the time of the fire.

Donatelli had traveled to the grocery store on Gwinnet Drive with a co-defendant. Donatelli approached the front glass doors of the grocery store and had a bottle of gasoline with a rag inside. He lit the rag and threw the bottle inside the front doors while the co-defendant filmed a Snapchat video of the crime.

A federal grand jury indicted Donatelli and the co-defendant in April 2024. Charges remain pending against Angela Schweitzer, 35.

Kenneth L. Parker, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio, and Daryl S. McCormick, Special Agent in Charge, U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives (ATF), announced the guilty plea entered today before U.S. District Judge Matthew W. McFarland. U.S. Attorney Parker and Special Agent in Charge McCormick acknowledged the assistance of the Cincinnati Fire Department, Cincinnati Police Department, Hamilton County Sheriff's Office and Union Township Police Department. Assistant United States Attorney Megan Gaffney Painter is representing the United States in this case.

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