* All identifying information has been edited to protect client confidentiality.
A house burned down in the middle of the night. Owen was charged with 4 counts of attempted murder and arson endangering life.
Owen left his girlfriend’s house late one night, after they had an argument. Within a few minutes, the house caught on fire and burned to the ground. Several witnesses thought they saw Owen watching the house burn. The prosecution retained an arson expert. The expert wrote a report stating that the fire was not an accident and Owen must have set it deliberately.
We attacked two key problems in the Crown’s case at the preliminary hearing. First, we established that the eye-witnesses could not really identify Owen as the person watching the fire. Second, with a carefully researched cross-examination we made the arson expert admit that his report was seriously flawed and could not be submitted to a jury.
As a result of the defence cross-examinations, Owen was found not guilty of attempted murder and arson.