Final submissions made ahead of sentencing of Sudbury man guilty in connection with 2021 fatal townhouse fire

The only thing left to be decided in the fate of a Sudbury man convicted of three counts of first-degree murder and one of arson causing bodily harm is the severity of the sentence on the final charge.

A jury convicted Liam Stinson, 29, in May of those four counts after about three hours of deliberation.

Stinson was found to be guilty in connection with setting in motion a plan to lob homemade Molotov cocktails into a Bruce Avenue townhouse, setting a fire that killed three people and severely injured another.

Jamie-Lynn Rose, Jasmine Somers and Guy Henri died as a result while David Cheff leapt from an upper window to escape the flames.

Stinson will receive a mandatory sentence of life imprisonment without a chance of parole for 25 years on the murder convictions.

Crown lawyer Kaely Whillans is also asking justice Dan Cornell to sentence Stinson to the maximum possible on the arson charge, that is, life imprisonment with no chance of parole for seven years, to be served alongside the other sentences.

Stinson's lawyer, Liam Thompson argued his client doesn't deserve the maximum on the arson charge since he's already being punished with the "harshest sentence in Canadian law", referring to the mandatory sentence for first-degree murder.

Instead, Thompson is proposing eight years in prison which would be tied to a lower parole eligibility on that count.

He argued that to sentence Stinson to the maximum, there would have to be evidence of cruelty, brutality, and sadistic intent for the gratification of the offender, which he argues is absent.

Thompson also disagreed that the element of intimate partner violence was an aggravating factor in this case, although Jamie-Lynn Rose was Stinson's former girlfriend.

Stinson's lawyer says the maximum sentence on arson would be a mistake

He also argued that there were mitigating factors in his client's case in that he has the support of his family, that he is trying to be a father to his children while in custody, and that he has finished his high school degree and taken life skills classes while in prison.

In conclusion, Thompson told Justice Dan Cornell that the maximum sentence on the arson charge would be akin to a sentence on a conviction for attempted murder.

He said that is not the charge at issue and although Stinson was originally charged with the attempted murder of David Cheff, it was changed to arson causing bodily harm just before his trial.

The judge offered Stinson the opportunity to speak, but he declined.

Justice Dan Cornell will deliver his decision on Dec. 11, 2024.