Lone survivor of Sudbury arson that killed three people testifies at murder trial

The trial of a 27 year old Sudbury man on three counts of first degree murder is underway in Sudbury.

Three people died in a deliberately set fire at a Bruce Avenue townhouse in April of 2021.

Liam Stinson originally faced six charges altogether but the Crown has withdrawn two.

Stinson still also faces a charge of recklessly causing damage by fire causing bodily harm in addition to the murder charges.

He has pleaded not guilty to all four charges.

Jamie-Lynn Lori-Lee Rose, Jasmine Marie-Clair Somers and Guy Armand Henri were killed during the early morning blaze.

David Cheff was badly injured jumping out a window.

Crown prosecutor Kaely Whillans opened the trial by describing what the jury could expect to hear from various witnesses, warning them that Stinson is innocent until proven guilty.

She described how there would be testimony about Jamie Lynn Rose who tried to escape the fire through an upper storey window but fell beside it, where emergency responders found her, and how she died in hospital five days later.

Whillans also said they would hear how David Cheff rushed to his child's bedroom when he noticed the fire, then tried to help his friend Guy Henri.

Whillans says Henri fled to the basement where he was found unconscious.

She said Jasmine Somers made it to a bathroom where she collapsed and died of smoke inhalation in that location, and noted that Henri was taken to hospital but did not survive.

She went on to say the jury would hear about the history of Stinson's relationship with Rose, including her attempts to leave him and move in with her friend  Cheff.

And testimony about Stinson talking about paying junkies to go after Cheff.

Whillans said the jury would even hear testimony about the making of molotov cocktails and how people entered the townhouse and set the fire in the kitchen.

"You will see the moment the fire starts and see it ignite," she said.

She told the jury that they would hear forensic evidence from police about text messages received and sent from Stinson's phone before and after the fire.

The first witness to take the stand was 40 year-old David Cheff who had lived at the Bruce Street townhouse for about a decade prior to the fire on April 11, 2021.

Survivor testifies about last moments of his friends

Cheff testified that on that day he had  roommates Jamie-Lynn Rose and Guy Henri living with him.

He had recently met Jasmine Somers a week prior to the fire and they were getting to know each other and the night of the fire was the first night she had slept there.

Henri had been living there about six months but Cheff said he had known him for about a decade.

Cheff called him a close friend, and more like a big brother in the last months they lived together.

He said he knew  Rose for many years, since they met as young adults in Timmins and said he considered her a little sister.

Cheff said Rose had been staying at his Bruce Avenue residence in Sudbury on and off for months, more frequently in the weeks before the fire and he kept a bedroom for her at his house.

He admitted he sold drugs in the form of speed tabs and would sell coke from time to time, and fentanyl upon request although no one else in the home sold drugs.

Cheff had met Stinson about six months before the fire and spent time with him one-on-one

"We got along, there was no animosity," he testified, noting he spent time with both Rose and Stinson together saying they were like a "normal couple".

He admitted that Rose eventually confided she was unhappy with Stinson and didn't seem comfortable in the relationship especially when they would get into fights.

Survivor says he was friends with accused

In the weeks leading up to the fire, he said Rose seemed scared to go back to the home she shared with Stinson and didn't want to be involved with Stinson anymore.

Cheff said he saw one particularly brutal text message from Stinson to Rose.

It read "Get the fuck home or I'll kill you," he testified.

He characterised theirs as a love-hate relationship but said Rose would always leave Cheff's home to go back to Stinson.

Stinson was living on Cambrian Heights Drive not far from Cheff's townhouse.

"We spent a lot of time hanging out doing drugs together, thought we had an actual friendship," testified Cheff. "He and I smoked a lot of crack." 

He says they did not sell the same drugs so there was no competition and had even met some of Stinson's friends, including a mutual friend Jared, whom he had known years previously in Timmins.

On the night of the fire, Cheff said he'd been awake for a couple of days smoking crystal meth and had reached the point he could no longer stay awake and went to bed early.

He added that Rose was using drugs to the best of his recollection, and possibly Somers and Henri were as well.

He remembered waking up later that night with an anxiety attack and Somers in bed with him.

Somers got up to open a bedroom window and five minutes later he heard Jamie-Lynn yell "fire" from the kitchen area.

He said he heard Rose come up some stairs and open his bedroom door and smoke billowed in.

The two fled up some more stairs and he went to his daughter's room and Rose went next door to his son's room.

He removed the window and jumped onto the grass below but realized there were still people in the house and Rose was not behind him.

He said he tried to tell Rose how to open the window but she was panicked and she couldn't follow directions.

Cheff sobbed as he described how he shouted at her to go to the other room and jump, then he went around the side of the townhouse and spoke to his friend Henri through the kitchen door..

The door window was partially open, but Henri couldn't get the door open and fled downstairs.

Cheff said that was the last time he saw his friend.

Then he said he started banging on all the neighbour's doors to call 911, and couldn't remember much after that.

Survivor describes waking up in hospital eight days after fire

He described bits and pieces of the firefighters entering the home and hearing on their radios how they discovered one body, then two, then a third.

He said he woke up eight days later in hospital when he came out of a coma.

"What if any impact did the fire have on you?" asked Whillans.

Cheff described that he felt mentally and emotionally damaged, had lost his memory and had no  trust in people.

Prior to moving to Sudbury in 2012, he said he had been a heavy opioid user but had gotten off them while living here.

"But after the fire, I jumped off the wagon, trying to forget," he said.

The trial will resume Wednesday with the defence cross-examining Cheff.

Stinson is the last of five men charged in connection with the arson..

The details of the court proceedings of Stinson's co-accused are covered under a publication ban.

However we can report the outcomes.

Jared Herrick and Philippe Jeannotte have both pleaded guilty to three counts of manslaughter and one count of arson causing bodily harm and are serving their sentences.

Another man pleaded guilty to obstructing police.

Three counts of being party to first degree murder were stayed against another man.

Stinson has pleaded not guilty to the three first degree murder charges, endangering life by aggravated assault and two other charges.

Stinson's trial is expected to take several weeks..