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Man found guilty in arson series ordered by Edmonton landlord
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A man accused in a series of north-central Edmonton arsons is guilty of starting fires that damaged or destroyed several homes in 2020 and 2021, a judge ruled Thursday.
Darcy Willier was found guilty of six of the 10 arson charges he faced, including one that was downgraded to a lesser charge.
He's also guilty of six weapons charges related to a sawed-off rifle and ammunition he was caught with when he was arrested in 2022.
In his decision, Court of King's Bench Justice Nathan Whitling determined Willier's motive was his work for notorious Edmonton landlord Abdullah Shah, also known as Carmen Pervez.
Willier burned down some of the properties himself, or sent associates to set fires, as part of a scheme overseen by Shah.
Shah was shot and killed outside his south Edmonton home in March 2022. A suspect has yet to be identified in his death.
Willier was arrested and charged in the arson case about three months after the shooting.
Whitling found that statements Willier made to undercover police officers under an investigation dubbed "Project Ignis" show Shah was in a dispute with another local property owner, Gina Cai.
The court heard evidence about statements Willier made during the seven-month undercover operation. In a recorded conversation, one of the undercover officers asks Willier whether he set a particular fire.
"No, I did it. Turn and burn baby, turn and burn," Willier responded.
Burning homes Cai owned, the judge found, was an effort by Shah intended to intimidate her and drive down property prices.
Willier described the scheme to the undercover officers and pointed out properties he claimed to have burned while they drove him around north Edmonton neighbourhoods. Willier also expressed willingness to continue starting fires as a means to profit on property flips.
"Cai was a motivated seller because her properties kept burning down," Whitling said.
"The accused could then stop burning them down … allowing them to be sold at a higher price."
Homes up in flames
Two of the arsons in which Willier was found guilty targeted homes owned by Cai.
One of those fires, which destroyed a home under construction at 115th Avenue and 82nd Street, also spread to the neighbouring homes on either side. Three people were in one of the houses and had to flee, and both adjacent properties were damaged to the point that they had to be demolished.
A separate fire caused an explosion at a three-storey apartment owned by an alleged associate of Shah, where seven people were living at the time, but all managed to escape safely.
Willier told the undercover officers he "blew this one straight up gone." He said a friend of his was responsible for carrying out the arson, but Willier also wanted to blow up "rats" that he claimed lived there.
Another arson at a different home was due to "hood politicking," Willier told undercover officers, saying Shah had an issue with the man who owned it.
Willier was found not guilty in four arsons where the judge said there was inadequate evidence to prove Willier was behind the blazes, or his statements about his involvement were too vague to meaningfully implicate him.
'Project Ignis' evidence
Defence lawyers Yodit Kidane and Sam Alzaman challenged the evidence collected by undercover officers, which involved a "Mr. Big" scheme where officers recruit a suspect into a fictitious criminal organization.
In this case, the officer who had the most contact with Willier presented himself as a criminal making money through prostitution and altering vehicle identification numbers on stolen cars.
He told Willier he wanted to "build his network" in Edmonton and could hire him to do jobs for him.
Whitling ruled that the evidence the police collected was admissible. He said in a decision last month that some of the typical concerns with a Mr. Big operation, such as police preying on a target's vulnerabilities or inducing them into giving an unreliable confession, are absent in this case.
"The undercover officers' contacts with the accused were relatively few. Although a friendly relationship had been formed, there was no relationship of integration or dependence," Whitling said.
"The accused was street smart and not vulnerable. No threats were made and no violence occurred."
Willier will be sentenced at a later date.
