Suspect with lighter, torch arrested, released four days before accused charged with murder in fatal arson, trial told

Four days before Alex Courchene was charged with murder for a North End blaze that killed two people, police arrested another suspect who was released that same day without charge, a jury heard Wednesday.

Courchene, 30, has pleaded not guilty to arson and two counts of second-degree murder in the Sept. 14, 2024, deaths of Zenabu Gula, 38, and Geda Wodisso, 49.

Prosecutors allege Courchene set a fire shortly before 3 a.m. in the stairwell of a building at the corner of Main Street and Atlantic Avenue that housed a church and apartment suites.

Gula and Wodisso were unable to escape their second-floor suite and died from smoke inhalation.

Jurors heard testimony that police received a tip that same morning about a possible suspect and around 5:30 a.m. arrested a 22-year-old man riding a bicycle in the 800 block of Main Street.

Const. Felipe Boing Viera Ribas said the man was arrested in possession of a black lighter and torch and taken by cruiser to police headquarters downtown.

En route to the police station, the man exclaimed without prompting: “I didn’t start the fire,” jurors heard.

“And you say (the comment was) unprovoked because you didn’t ask him about the fire,” defence lawyer Matt Schwartz put to Boing Viera Ribas.

“No, I did not,” the officer replied.

The man said he had used methamphetamine at about 2:30 a.m.

Boing Viera Ribas asked the man if he knew what arson was and he replied: “No, but I think arson is when you mess around with someone else’s property.”

Det. Sgt. Jarett Reid testified he interviewed the suspect two times that morning before he was released without charge “pending further investigation.”

Reid said police seized the man’s clothes for examination and provided him new clothes to wear when he was released.

Courchene became the subject of an internal suspect bulletin and was arrested Sept. 18, Reid said.

Reid said a photo lineup shown to witnesses made up of 10 suspect photos included a picture of Courchene but not the first man police arrested.

dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca