A B.C. Supreme Court Justice issued a mixed verdict Thursday on admissibility of evidence police had gathered when they detained a man now accused of setting a deadly fire at a Prince George motel.
Justice Margot Fleming found that while the statement Justin Kyle Aster gave to police was voluntary, he was subjected to an unreasonable delay in getting access to a lawyer in the time leading up to the interview after he was picked up three days after the July 8, 2020 blaze at the Econo Lodge at the corner of Ninth Avenue and Victoria Street.
About two dozen people got out safely but three people were killed.
Recounting the steps police took in the aftermath, Fleming said investigators had gathered images from nearby security cameras. During a subsequent "street check," a Prince George RCMP general duty member came across Aster at Fifth Avenue and Dominion Street downtown wearing clothing similar to that of the suspect seen in the images.
Aster was initially "detained" for the investigation. He was handcuffed and placed in the back of a police cruiser and told he had the right to obtain a lawyer. For about an hour he remained in the vehicle while investigators worked to determine whether they had the right person. Then he was subsequently arrested and taken to the detachment.
Using a cellphone, an officer had tried unsuccessfully to reach a local lawyer while Aster was detained in the back of the cruiser but Fleming found an unreasonable delay of 13 minutes before that step had been taken.
At the detachment, Aster ran into difficulty again. He tried reaching two local lawyers without success and, when put in touch with a legal aid lawyer, was told the matter was too serious for that counsel to handle.
Roughly three-and-a-half hours after he was first picked up, Aster was able to get in touch with lawyer Jason LeBlond but due to a need for others to get hold of counsel, Aster had to wait some time before he could make use of the detachment's phone room to speak with LeBlond in private.
While at the detachment, Aster was subjected to a further 15 minutes of unreasonable delay, Fleming determined.
The decision came at the end of a voir dire, or trial within a trial, to determine whether Aster's rights under the Charter had been violated. Crown and defence counsels will make further submissions on a remedy in answer to the finding.
At stake is evidence gathered during Aster's time at the detachment on that day that included photos police took of his clothing and of his tattoos.
Aster also gave a statement to police in which he admitted to being the person in a photo obtained from one of the security cameras but that he walked through the "pass through" at the Econo Lodge but also asserted he did not stop and not set the fire.
Fleming found the statement was given voluntarily and without police creating an "atmosphere of oppression."
Aster was eventually released without charge but, in September 2021, he was arrested once again and charged with three counts of criminal negligence causing death and one count each of arson in relation to inhabited property and arson damaging property. Evidence gathered by police, including another statement, at that time is the subject of a second voir dire.
