The judge-alone trial of a man who a Bearberry woman says doused her with gasoline and burned down her house in January has been adjourned until March 28, 2017.
Derek Littlejohn, 43, faces three charges of arson, a charge of unlawful confinement and a charge of breach of probation. He has pleaded not guilty to all changes.
Littlejohn's trial before Judge J. Shriar in Didsbury provincial court got underway on July 13 and continued on July 27.
The trial was scheduled to continue on Sept. 28 but was put over when the accused's lawyer did not appear in court.
The matter was then adjourned until Oct. 3 when the new date for the trial continuation was set.
Testifying for the Crown on the opening day of the trial, homeowner Dawn Rose told the court that the accused poured gasoline throughout her Bearberry house and on her on the night of Jan. 6.
“He said, ‘You don't know how mad I can get (expletive deleted)',” Rose said, “It was a full jerry can of gasoline. He had two hands on it. He doused me with gas. He's dousing me and the home with gas.”
She testified that some of the gas spilled onto a nearby fireplace and immediately ignited.
“I saw the flames coming up behind me. I could see the flames. The gas hit my back and my hair and then the front of me,” she said.
Both Rose and Littlejohn fled the residence and were not burned.
During the July 27 court session, a 75-minute police interview between Littlejohn and Sundre RCMP Cpl. Karl Mandel at the Sundre detachment was played in court.
During the interview – recorded 18 hours after the fire with the accused under arrest – Littlejohn said he and Rose got into a tussle as she held a small can of fuel in the living room of the residence.
The fire started when some of the fuel spilled onto a nearby fireplace, he said.
Littlejohn said Rose was trying to pour some of the fuel on him at the time.
“She went to throw it on me,” said Littlejohn. “I saw she had matches and I said, ‘Oh my God.' She tried to kill me, she tried to kill me.”
Littlejohn was scheduled to testify at the Sept. 28 court session.
