Arsonist handed seven-year sentence for setting two Varsity fires

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A Manitoba arsonist who destroyed one Calgary house and critically broken two others whereas their occupants slept has acquired a seven-year jail sentence.

Dominik Wesley Chicken lit fires in Varsity Estates within the early morning hours of Might 18 and June 4, 2022, whereas prowling within the backyards of houses within the northwest group, in keeping with an agreed assertion of information.

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Nobody was injured within the fires, which precipitated greater than $1.7 million in harm.

Chicken was first captured by a neighbour’s safety digicam getting into an unlocked shed exterior a Varsity Property Drive N.W. house round 3 a.m. on Might 18, minutes earlier than setting fireplace to the shed. The blaze unfold to the adjoining house, inflicting greater than $850,000 in harm. The associated fee to restore a neighbouring house topped $50,000.

The house’s homeowners, a pair of their 60s who had celebrated their fortieth wedding ceremony anniversary days earlier, stated the fireplace had modified their lives.

“Since that night time our lives have been outlined by stress, exhaustion, uncertainty, anger and to some extent, concern,” their sufferer impression assertion reads.

“As time has handed, we’re each nonetheless struggling to construct again a way of pleasure, in addition to the motivation to be wholesome and blissful. Watching our house contents being thrown into massive waste bins broke our hearts.”

Chicken was seen once more 16 days later using a bicycle to a house on Varsity Property Street N.W. round 4:30 a.m. earlier than getting into an unlocked, connected storage and beginning a hearth, which quickly unfold to the principle residence.

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Harm to the house, occupied by a pair and their nine-year-old daughter, was so intensive it needed to be rebuilt, in keeping with court docket paperwork.

Courtroom heard Chicken, who has a historical past of main drug and alcohol habit, in keeping with a pre-sentence report, was extremely intoxicated on each events.

Justice Brian Stevenson, in his written sentencing determination, stated Chicken’s “reckless” actions endangered the lives of the individuals in all three houses.

Chicken additionally acquired a 30-day sentence for trafficking in a stolen bank card he took after breaking right into a automobile close to the place the primary fireplace was began.

Chicken, who has some household ties in Calgary, was in a steady relationship with a girl from the Bloodvein River First Nation in Manitoba when the arsons occurred, the pre-sentence report states. It’s unclear why he was in Calgary on the time.

With time already served, his remaining sentence is 5 years and three months.

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