B.C. man found guilty of first-degree murder in fire deaths of five people

A jury of nine men and three women found Nathan Fry, 20, guilty of five counts of first-degree murder.

Adela Etibako, 39, and three of her children: Edita, 12, Benedicta, 9, and eight-year-old Stephane died in the May 15, 2006 blaze. Bolingo Etibako's girlfriend, 17-year-old Ashley Singh, also died.

Bolingo, the sole survivor of the fire, leapt out an upper-floor window and suffered severe burns.

Fry was also convicted of attempted murder in the case of Bolingo Etibako, who spent months in hospital after the fire.

"In the matter of a few minutes, you caused the deaths of five victims, five people against whom you had no grudge whatsoever," Justice Ian Pitfield told Fry.

The judge called the crime "planned and deliberate, cruel and calculated."

Asked if he had anything to say, Fry said: "No."

Pitfield said Fry had shown no remorse for the deaths, no sympathy for the family.

Prosecutors alleged Fry set the blaze to get back at Bolingo Etibako, then 16, for implicating him in two stabbings earlier that year.

"Because he was willing to talk to police, you developed a dislike of him," Pitfield said.

The judge said Fry had called Bolingo Etibako his best friend and that the family had welcomed him into their East Vancouver home.

"This is the result," Pitfield told Fry. "These five individuals . . . had come to this country from the Congo looking for a life of safety and opportunity."

"You've left Mr. Bolingo Etibako in a situation where he's going to have to live with the memory of this terrible night," Pitfield said.

As Fry walked into court before the verdict, he mouthed what appeared to be the words "I love you" to his mother.

But as the jury foreman read the first guilty verdict, both audibly gasped.

As Fry looked at the floor while the rest of the guilty counts were read, his mother dabbed tears from her eyes.

She would not comment on the verdict as she left the courtroom. Before staggering into an elevator, she stood and sobbed, her face against a wall.

Family friend Lorne Hull said she's heartbroken.

"(It's) a total heart-wrenching scene to see her suffering," Hull said. "We think of the crime in terms of how it affects the victims but we don't see the other victims who are the families of the perpetrators.

During the four-week B.C. Supreme Court trial, the jury heard about an elaborate, months-long police undercover operation built around an effort to convince Fry he was a rising star in a national criminal organization.

In a videotape made by undercover police and shown in court, Fry said he bought fuel from a gas station, broke a window at the Etibako home, dumped the gasoline and used a torch to ignite the blaze.

Fry, 20, testified he did not set the blaze and that he was ripping off a marijuana grow operation at the time.

Philip Riddell, Fry's lawyer, told jurors his client admitted setting the fire to undercover police posing as criminals because he dreamed of pursing a life of crime and saw himself as a big shot.

Riddell argued the Crown didn't prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt. He cited discrepancies in evidence regarding gas cans and a torch used to start the fire.

Riddell said outside court Sunday it's too early to consider an appeal.

"Normally you don't even start thinking about those things until the emotions of the situation have calmed down," he said.

"Mr. Fry, of course, is disappointed with the result," Riddell said. "Other decisions in terms of our options will be considered at a later date."

The Crown said that only someone involved in setting the fire could have known it was set by a torch, but Fry testified it was common knowledge among area criminals.

Prosecutors argued Fry gave an honest confession to the supposed crime bosses, as he understood the consequences of lying. Undercover officers had concocted scenarios - including threats of death to out-of-line gangsters - meant to demonstrate the need for loyalty and honesty amongst the supposed gang.

Prosecutor Kerr Clark said the jury made the right decision.

"There's no pleasure that comes from these things," Clark said. "It's always sad to see to see a young man spend the rest of his life in this manner but I also think of the Etibako family, what they've been through."

Jurors heard that the sting operation involving Fry included meetings with supposed targets and clients in Vancouver, the B.C. Interior and Montreal.

Fry told the court of his role in what he believed to be a powerful criminal group, which involved accompanying a more senior criminal in delivering packages of guns and diamonds.

Clark had urged jurors not to find fault with the way police sometimes conduct investigations - a reference to police posing as criminals to elicit information from suspects.

In the first week of the trial, Bolingo Etibako broke into tears while telling the jury of waking up in hospital following the fire.

He testified that he had gone to church with his mom on the day before the fire. It was Mother's Day, and he had bought her a necklace and bracelet.

He said his girlfriend, Ashley Singh, stayed over that night to celebrate their 11-month anniversary.

Etibako said Singh woke him during the night, saying she thought she'd heard a noise. Hearing nothing more, they went back to sleep.

He said he awoke again to find the family's townhouse on fire but couldn't open the front or back doors and leapt out the window after Singh fell and he couldn't help her.

"You took the life of a young woman on the verge of adulthood," Pitfield told Fry.

Etibako said he ran to a restaurant across the street, where patrons called 911.

In the back of the ambulance, he said he told a paramedic the names of his family members who were left inside the house.

"As soon as I said those names, the house blew up," he said.