Brampton man set his wife ablaze in jealousy, murder trial hears
A Brampton man told Peel police he doused his wife with gasoline and lit her ablaze over his jealous belief she was cheating, a jury has heard.
Helder Vertentes-Arruda has pleaded not guilty to the first-degree murder of his mother-in-law and the attempted murders of his three daughters, his father-in-law and his wife for allegedly setting her and his in-laws’ Brampton home ablaze in the wee hours of Dec. 4, 2020.
Following his arrest, the jury at the ongoing Brampton murder trial has heard, Vertentes-Arruda told a Peel police officer that it was his wife Christine Correia’s fault he soaked her with gasoline because believed she was lying about an affair. “That’s why I wanted to do justice,” Vertentes-Arruda, who struggled to communicate in English, told the officer in Portuguese.
On Thursday, the Crown closed its case after almost two days of testimony from Correia. Emergency responders were called to the Martindale Crescent home shortly before 4 a.m. They found a fire that had gutted the three-bedroom bungalow home, left Correia with serious burns to her arms, legs and feet and killed her 61-year-old mother, Maria.
Correia testified she had taken refuge at her parents’ home with her three daughters, because of Vertentes-Arruda’s bizarre and abusive recent behaviour, when she was awoken by the sound of glass breaking.
When she went to see what was causing the commotion, she told the jury she saw Vertentes-Arruda holding a gas can in his hand.
“He started dousing me with the gas,” Correia testified Thursday. Then, within seconds, Vertentes-Arruda reached for a cigarette lighter and “that’s when I was engulfed in flames.” Frantically, she struggled in a futile attempt to extinguish the flames, which spread to the gasoline-covered floor.
“It was too late,” she testified. Amid the chaos, Correia said she could hear her mother and three daughters, who were sleeping in the rooms nearby, screaming for help. She said she scrambled to remove her burning T-shirt before racing to save her terrified children.
The children and their grandfather, who was asleep in the basement, escaped through a side door, with Correia following close behind. Outside, she said Vertentes-Arruda appeared again and attacked her, striking her in the face with a metal hand tool before proceeding to beat her until she fell to the ground.
Correia testified Vertentes-Arruda kept kicking her while saying, “This is what you deserve” as her
mother, now standing at the door, “was crying and pleading with him to stop.”
By the time Correia was able to get up from the ground, she said both Vertentes-Arruda and her mother were gone; Maria perished in the fire. Vertentes-Arruda fled on foot and was arrested that morning.
Recalling the time before the fire, Correia testified even though they were strapped for cash, the marriage did not have any major issues until 2017 when she said she noticed a drastic shift in her husband’s behaviour. Vertentes-Arruda had started using cocaine and was coming home intoxicated, she said.
She said her husband’s paranoia escalated the night of Dec. 2, 2020, when he called police to their Oakdene St. apartment over his belief she was hiding her lover in the house. Police were unable to find any evidence to support his accusation but did end up charging him with cocaine possession.
The trial continues.
IF YOU OR SOMEONE YOU KNOW IS EXPERIENCING DOMESTIC VIOLENCE, YOU CAN CALL THE ASSAULTED WOMEN’S HELPLINE, WHICH HAS SUPPORT IN SEVERAL LANGUAGES AT 1-866-863-0511 OR TEXT #SAFE (#7233) ON FIDO, ROGERS, BELL AND TELUS NETWORKS. YOU CAN ALSO CALL 211 TO FIND THE RIGHT RESOURCES FOR YOU. IF YOU ARE IN IMMEDIATE DANGER, CALL 911.