One Kelowna arsonist is guilty, another not criminally responsible

KELOWNA – One arsonist is guilty.

Another isn’t criminally responsible for his actions.

And a man who shot himself with an old-fashioned handgun is doing his time at home.

All the cases were dealt with recently at the Kelowna Law Courts.

After a several day trial in BC Supreme Court, Jeanine Marie Bastien was convicted of arson related to inhabited property and arson to one’s own property.

In October 2013, Bastien set her car on fire in the underground parking lot of her condo building on Carrington Road in West Kelowna.

The 51-year-old woman will be sentenced at a later date.

Aaron James Rodney Unger was also charged with arson in relation to an inhabited property after fire in a suite forced the evacuation of the Willowbrook Gardens apartments on de Montreuil Court in December 2014.

A judge ruled Unger is not criminally responsible for starting his bed on fire because of mental disorder.

However, Unger was sentenced to 45 days jail for failing to comply with an undertaking following the arson arrest.

And Jacob Kjaer was sentenced to a 90 day conditional jail sentence (served in the community) for possessing a prohibited or restricted firearm.

In September 2013, Kjaer shot himself in the leg while handling a black-powder handgun inside his Burtch Road home.

Kjaer told attending police officers the shot came from an intruder in his backyard.