OHIO — A Batavia man pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court Wednesday to setting fire to a Spring Grove Village grocery store using a Molotov cocktail-style incendiary device.
Donald Donatelli, 28, admitted to causing malicious damage and destruction of a building in interstate commerce. Under a plea agreement, prosecutors recommended a 66-month prison sentence.
According to court documents, Donatelli traveled to the store on Gwinnet Drive on Nov. 26, 2023, with a co-defendant.
Around 10 p.m., he lit a gasoline-filled bottle with a rag as a fuse and threw it through the store’s front glass doors while a companion recorded the act for a Snapchat video.
The store owner and his wife were inside at the time, and the store was open.
A federal grand jury indicted Donatelli and his co-defendant, Angela Schweitzer, 35, in April 2024. Schweitzer’s charges remain pending.
U.S. Attorney Kenneth L. Parker and Daryl S. McCormick, Special Agent in Charge of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives (ATF), announced the plea, crediting assistance from local and county law enforcement and emergency responders.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Megan Gaffney Painter is prosecuting the case.
