Son testifies at trial of Edmonton soldier accused of trying to kill her 3 children in fire
CBC
The eldest son of a woman accused of attempting to murder him and his two siblings says his mother told him to go back to bed when he woke to a smoke-filled house.
The accused, who is a serving member of the Canadian Armed Forces, cannot be identified because of a publication ban in place to protect the identities of her two sons and one daughter.
The 45-year-old soldier faces three counts of attempted murder and two counts of arson, and is in the midst of a trial in Edmonton's Court of King's Bench.
Crown prosecutors have alleged the woman took the children on a lavish, fun-filled weekend at West Edmonton Mall, before taking them home, waiting until they were asleep and starting a fire in the basement.
Her eldest son, who is 17 now but was 10 at the time of the fire, testified Wednesday that when the family got back to their home on the CFB Edmonton base, his mother gave all three children NyQuil.
He said they played video games and watched movies in their mother's bedroom, and that his mother made a comment about their father.
"She tells us that she loves us and that we'll never have to see him again and we go to bed," he said.
The teen says he woke later, having a hard time breathing. He said his mom told him it was smoke from wildfires.
Eventually, the boy said he went to the main floor and saw thick smoke and a red glow at the bottom of the basement stairs. He said he heard his mother tell him to go back upstairs.
He did, but he and his brother went into the brother's bedroom, got out the window and climbed onto the roof.
The trial has previously heard all four family members were rescued by neighbours who came to help.
During cross-examination, defence lawyer Curtis Steeves challenged the teen on changes to his account of what happened over the years.
The lawyer also put it to the teen that he'd originally believed his dad started the fire, not his mom.
"My mom would always tell us he was a bad person," the boy said, adding that by 2019 he believed his mother had tried to kill him.
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