Edmonton landlord Abdullah Shah allegedly directed man charged in Alberta Avenue arsons

A man accused in a series of arsons that plagued north-central Edmonton neighbourhoods in 2020 and 2021 was allegedly working as "muscle" for notorious inner-city landlord Abdullah Shah, a court heard this month.

The police theory of the case is detailed in Court of King's Bench Justice Nathan Whitling's decision on evidence in the trial of Darcy Willier, who faces several counts of arson as well as firearms charges.

The string of blazes, concentrated in Alberta Avenue and surrounding communities, started in late 2020, putting residents on edge for more than a year.

When Willier was arrested in June 2022, EPS acting Staff Sgt. David Graham said the fires had traumatized communities.

Shah — also known as Carmen Pervez — had been killed in a shooting outside his south-side home a few months before the charges were laid. He owned numerous Edmonton properties, and also had a criminal record dating back to 1983, with convictions for drug trafficking and a $30-million mortgage fraud scheme.

Graham called Willier the "key suspect" in a lengthy investigation that linked dozens of suspicious fires. He also said at the time that police believed Shah and Willier were connected.

"We might be able to get one person for doing one arson. However, our goal was to cut off the head and make sure we're targeting the right people. It takes a long time to follow that evidence through," he said.

Shah directed others to set fires: EPS theory

Details from the police investigation of the arson case were revealed in court as Willier's defence lawyers applied to have some of the evidence tossed from the judge-alone trial. 

According to Whitling's decision, by April 2022, police believed that the fires were related to a real-estate transaction and subsequent "litigious dispute" between Shah and another Edmonton property developer, Gina Cai.

The police theory was that Shah and an alleged associate were "intentionally directing others to set fires to their own properties for such purposes as insurance fraud," Whitling's decision says. 

EPS also alleged Shah was directing people to set fires to some of Cai's properties in an attempt to drive down their value and extort money from her.

Investigators believed that Willier "acted as 'muscle' for Shah, and that he had set or caused others to set fires," the judge wrote.

Police also detailed information from a confidential informant stating that Shah and Willier were involved in burning down houses, and that Shah "openly brags about his insurance scams."

In July 2021, investigators arrested Kasey Hetherington, who admitted to burning down a house at 119th Avenue and 91st Street that Cai owned. Hetherington was also caught on surveillance video filling a red jerry can at a gas station.

In a post-arrest interview, he said Shah had told him he had to start the fire or one of his family members would be hurt, and Willier had given him the jerry can and confronted him "for not doing the job well enough" afterwards. Court heard Hetherington returned to the home to try again to start the fire.

He served a period of house arrest after pleading guilty in the case.

Judge grants application to exclude some evidence

Hetherington also said he saw Willier with burn marks "all over his body," Whitling's decision says. That prompted police to look into whether Willier had sought medical attention, confirming with security and health disclosure officials at the University of Alberta Hospital that Willier had been there and gotten treatment for burns.

Whitling granted an application to set aside any information from a production order for Willier's medical records, agreeing with the defence that Willier's Charter rights were violated.

The judge said Willier had a reasonable expectation of privacy in seeking medical care, and police obtained information about his treatment without a warrant, making it an unreasonable search and seizure.

But Whitling ruled that there's sufficient evidence to support a warrant police sought to track Willier and intercept his communications, dismissing a bid to exclude it.

The trial is expected to continue into early June.