Trial began in earnest March 19 for a man facing three counts of first-degree murder in connection with a fatal fire that claimed the life of three people and seriously injured another.
Jury selection in the case began Monday and wrapped up the morning of March 19, seating 14 people — nine women and three men, with another man and woman as alternates — tasked with deciding the fate of Liam Stinson. Superior Court Justice R. Dan Cornell did not feel the need to add the additional jurors mentioned March 18.
Stinson was re-arraigned Tuesday after the Crown withdrew two of six charges just before opening addresses began yesterday afternoon. Stinson is now facing three counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of 26-year-old Jasmine Marie-Claire Somers, 33-year-old Jamie-Lynn Lori-Lee Rose and Guy Armand Henri, 50, as well as one count of intentionally or recklessly causing damage by fire to dwelling/house in which fire caused bodily harm (arson).
Dropped are the charges of party to the offence of attempted murder, and party to an offence of arson - disregard for human life.
The charges stem from an April 11, 2021 fire that was determined to be arson.
In her opening address, Crown Attorney Kaely Whillans told the jury that Stinson ordered the fire set, angry that those living in the house, located at 744 Bruce Avenue, Unit 125, were selling drugs. He was also angry that his former romantic partner, Jamie-Lynn Rose, was staying at the home. As stated earlier, Rose would go on to die in the fire that was set.
Whillans said a witness will testify that Stinson “talked every day about getting back at this house, talked about hiring junkies to do it.”
The Crown then called its first witness, David Cheff, 40, a tenant at the residence who was seriously injured jumping to safety from a second-floor window to escape the fire.
While he tried with everything he could, he told the court he was unable to save his friends.
Cheff had known Henri since he moved to Sudbury in 2012, and was moved to tears when describing his friend as a “big brother.”
Cheff said he had known Rose for approximately 25 years, and she had been staying off and on in his home. He described their relationship as family-like, and that they had an agreement to house each other when needed. Rose had been spending some nights with Stinson, who lived across the street in another housing complex. But Cheff testified their relationship was strained, saying they had conversations wherein he heard Stinson “be aggressive” and Rose be defensive, and that she had begun staying at Cheff’s house more often.
He described a text that Stinson sent to Rose while she was staying at Cheff’s house, which he said read, “Get the f**k home or I will kill you.”
“I never understood why she would go back, but she would, then they seemed happy together, then they got in a fight,” said Cheff.
Somers and Cheff had recently got to know each other and had begun spending more time together romantically after meeting a week or two before the fire. Her first overnight stay at Cheff’s was the night she died.
Cheff detailed the events of the night, pausing several times to control his emotions and wiping tears.
The home contained many sets of stairways, Cheff said. He described a first floor with a kitchen and a kitchen entrance from the backyard, which was their main entry point to the home. Stairs also led to the living room, with another set leading to the master bedroom and bathroom, and yet another to two upper bedrooms.
Cheff, in the master bedroom, said he awoke with a panicked feeling, which he described as an anxiety attack, and woke Somers, who was sleeping in the bed beside him.
Just a few minutes later, he said, he heard Rose scream, “Fire!”
He said his first thought was a cooking fire, but then he heard someone running up the stairs from the living room and Rose threw open his door. Cheff testified his window was open slightly, and the room instantly filled with smoke. Rose told him the house was on fire.
He testified that he left his room in confusion, and ran with Rose who was climbing to another floor, where the two additional bedrooms were, presumably to escape the smoke.
Rose ran to a further bedroom, and Cheff ran into the first door, thinking that Rose was with him.
He managed to open the window in less than 30 seconds, he testified, and then looked for his friend beside him. He testified he couldn’t see anyone else in the room, and the smoke was overtaking him, so he jumped out the window.
When he landed, he could see Rose in the window of the other bedroom. He testified he cried out to her and could hear her, and tried to tell her how to get the window open, and then to tell her to go to the window he escaped from, “but the last thing she said is that she couldn’t.”
Cheff testified he then went to the kitchen door, where his friend Henri, also known as Popcorn, was trying to open the door.
The two tried furiously to get the door open, from both sides, but Cheff said “the circumstances of the door and the locks in the shape they were in” prevented them from making it work. Henri was overcome by smoke and ran back down the basement stairs.
Cheff said he ran to other units hoping to awaken a neighbour to call 911. His memory falters at that point, he said, and the effects of the smoke inhalation were beginning, so he went to get medical attention.
He testified he could hear the firefighters on the radio. “I could hear them saying ‘we got the first body’, ‘we got the second body’, then ‘we got the third body’,” he said through tears. “When the paramedic asked who I was, I said, ‘I’m the fourth body.”
He passed out, and woke up eight days later from an induced coma.
Cheff testified he suffers brain damage, has lost all trust in others, and not only had to leave town, but relapsed into opioid use.
Court will resume March 20 at 10 a.m., where Cheff will be cross-examined by the defense.
Jenny Lamothe is a reporter with Sudbury.com.
