Year in jail for man who set friend’s house on fire

A year-long sentence for arson was handed down Tuesday in Medicine Hat to a man who set his best friend’s house on fire.

“Your crocodile tears and ‘sorries’ for your best friend don’t impress me at all,” Judge Darwin Greaves said to Trevor Lee Fedan, adding that while Fedan claims to be remorseful, he hasn’t backed up this remorse with paying the family even “one red cent” of the $24,000 in damages caused.

According to the agreed statement, Fedan was visiting with a couple who were his life-long friends in Medicine Hat on May 15, 2015. There was a verbal altercation between the wife and Fedan, who was 31 years old at the time. The husband and wife went to bed in their basement bedroom, while Fedan stayed awake. The couple’s two children, ages 8 and 10 at the time, were not at the residence.

The husband heard yelling, went upstairs and found the main floor engulfed in smoke. The couple escaped the residence, called 911, but couldn’t find Fedan.

Fedan was found — passed out in a ditch along the TransCanada — by military police. He had been attempting to hitchhike back to Calgary.

Fedan went on to tell police he had lit a pile of laundry on fire out of “spite and frustration.” He had only intended to burn the clothes, and had no intention for the fire to spread, nor did he use any incendiary materials.

Compounding the family’s loss is that their home had been damaged in the 2013 flood, and so was not covered by insurance for fire at the time.

Since the fire, the husband has “single-handedly rebuilt the home, not without considerable effort and cost,” said Crown prosecutor Andrea Pocha.

Fedan ultimately pled out to an amended arson charge on his March 14 trial date, and a presentencing report was ordered. He does have a criminal record, which includes assault causing bodily harm and mischief.

Fedan has been remorseful for his actions since day one, said defence council Sara Lewans. “This was his best friend.” Fedan has worked to turn his life around, she said, although hasn’t been able to work and pay back the funds due to recovering from an elbow injury. He intends to pay back all damages once his sentence is complete, she said.

Fedan “recklessly endangered two people,” said Greaves, who ordered the man also pay restitution to the family, in part through a threeyear probationary period, as well as a civil order of restitution.

Greaves told Fedan that if it weren’t for the work of defence counsel that got the “best possible position you deserve in the law,” with a joint submission, he might have well received an even steeper sentence had Greaves had gotten a “free wheel” for sentencing had it gone to trial.