A B.C. Supreme Court Justice found a man not guilty Friday of setting a fire 1 1/2 years ago that killed three people staying at a downtown Prince George motel.
Justin Kyle Aster had been facing faces three counts of criminal negligence causing death and one count each of arson in relation to an inhabited property and arson damaging property from the July 8, 2020 fire at the Econo Lodge Motel at the corner of Victoria Street and Ninth Avenue.
However, Justice Margot Fleming concluded Crown prosecutors had not proven their case against Aster beyond reasonable doubt and found herself agreeing with many of the submissions from defence lawyer Jason LeBlond during closing arguments earlier this week.
Crown's case hinged largely on video from the motel and surrounding businesses showing Aster in the area at about the time the fire broke out shortly after 8 a.m. in a pile of debris from a renovation that had been piled beneath a stairway at the east end of the motel's courtyard the day before.
Video showed Aster passing through the courtyard and a breezeway and a "shadowy figure" in behind the pile for a brief period shortly after smoke was seen coming from the motel. However, no one is seen actually setting a fire, investigators were unable to precisely determine how the blaze was ignited and testimony as to exactly when the fire broke out was inconclusive.
Because the case was circumstantial, Fleming said she is obligated by law to consider "reasonable alternative inferences" such as the possibility the fire was the result of spontaneous combustion or an errant cigarette and had been smouldering for a time before erupting into open flames.
Crown had suggested as motivation a comment Aster made to police that the motel's management "did not like natives" and being in an agitated mood following an interaction with an employee at the Tim Hortons across the street about an hour before he is seen on the motel property.
But Fleming found Crown was "significantly overreaching" in that regard and that Aster's comment to police was made "quite casually."
Contrary to Crown's assertion that Aster only "reluctantly" admitted to police he was in the area, Fleming agreed with LeBlond's submission that his addiction to heroin "provides important context for his comment that he does not remember very much" beyond what he does every day.
Fleming also rejected with Crown's assertion that Aster left the scene in a "brisk or purposeful" manner. Rather, Fleming found the videos showed him doing much the same thing as he did before, namely "meandering" and searching for cigarette butts with no attempt to avoid being seen.
Crown also raised suspicions about sequence in which Aster is seen changing into dark clothing and putting on a hoodie and gloves, but Fleming found that did not go far enough as the video only establishes he was behind the stairs for "only a matter of some seconds. What he did during that time is not discernible."
