ELKTON — A Cecil County grand jury has handed up a 13-count indictment against a man who allegedly hurled a homemade burning device known as a “Molotov cocktail” at a North East-area home while it was occupied by three people — including a 5-year-old boy — because the accused reportedly believed the man inside that house was having an affair with his wife, according to court records.
Among the charges listed against the defendant — Christopher Joseph Shivery, 41, of North East — in that grand jury indictment filed on July 3 are three counts of attempted second-degree murder, a felony that is punishable by up to 40 years in prison per offense if convicted. Shivery’s jury trial is set to start on Dec. 11 and it is scheduled to last two days, court records show.
The man who had been inside that dwelling in the 1200 block of West Old Philadelphia Road when the incident occurred at approximately 11 p.m. on March 2 was able to quickly extinguish the gasoline-fueled burning object, which caused an estimated $500 in heat damage after striking an exterior side wall, court records show. No one was injured.
At the time of the incident, the man who snuffed out the blaze before contacting the authorities was inside that dwelling with his girlfriend and their 5-year-old son, court records show.
During their on-scene investigation, Maryland Office of the State Fire Marshal detectives detected a “heavy odor of gasoline” and collected “glass remains and a glass bottle top with a wick,” all of which were sent to a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms lab and analyzed, according to court records.
After learning the analysis results, MOSFM detectives categorized the fire as an arson, police said. They concluded that the fire started when someone ignited a Molotov cocktail and threw it against an exterior wall of the occupied home, police added.
The man who had been inside that targeted home opined to investigators that he believed Shivery — whom he referred to as a “friend” — is the person responsible for hurling the burning device because Shivery believed that he and Shivery’s wife were having an affair, court records show.
Court records indicate that the man who was inside that targeted home maintained that he and Shivery’s wife were not having an affair.
Investigators learned that Shivery’s wife had secretly put a GPS device in the 2007 Hyundai Elantra used by him, in an effort to monitor his whereabouts because she believed that Shivery was “using meth again,” court records show.
Shivery’s wife provided MOSFM detectives with the login information to access those GPS records, which showed that the monitored Hyundai Elantra was parked on Cool Springs Road, a street near the targeted West Old Philadelphia Road, from 10:20 p.m. to 10:28 p.m. on March 2 — the night of the incident, court records allege.
In addition, investigators seized video gleaned from a security camera at a Cool Springs Road residence, and that footage showed Shivery behind the wheel of the 2007 Hyundai Elantra on Cool Springs Road during the March 2 time period documented by the GPS records, according to court records.
“Additionally, the obtained security camera video shows a white male getting out of the said parked vehicle (2007 Hyundai Elantra) along Cool Springs Road and across” from the targeted West Old Philadelphia Road home, court records allege.
At one point, the video shows the man “accessing the fuel door” of the 2007 Hyundai Elantra, before he goes back inside the car with a “loud exhaust” and drives on Cool Springs Road, heading toward the occupied West Old Philadelphia Road home, court records show. During their interviews, the man and his girlfriend told investigators that Shivery’s vehicle had a loud exhaust at that time, police reported.
“A large flash can be seen consistent with a functioning Molotov cocktail in the direction of (the victims’) occupied dwelling,” court records allege.
The man who had been inside the targeted home told investigators that Shivery called him on the phone “just prior to the fire starting” on the night of March 2 and asked if he was at home, police said. The man told investigators that Shivery wanted to come to the West Old Philadelphia Road home because he and his wife were fighting, police added. The man told Shivery that he would be back at the West Old Philadelphia Road home in approximately 20 minutes, court records show.
“(The man) believed Shivery was making sure they were home prior to setting the fire to his occupied dwelling,” according to the charging document, which indicates that Shivery never stopped at the home that night, even though he had said he planned to do so during the phone conversation.
The original charging document also alleges that Shivery’s wife told investigators that Shivery “admitted to her that he set fire to (the West Old Philadelphia Road) house using gasoline.”
Investigators, who initially charged Shivery at the district court level in June, arrested him on July 3 — the day that the grand jury handed up the indictment, court records show. Shivery remains in the Cecil County Detention Center on no bond after his July 5 bail review hearing, according to court records, which indicate that Cecil County Circuit Court Judge Cameron A. Brown presided over that proceeding.
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