The prosecution wrapping up its case on day 42 of the second-degree murder trial of Dennis Oland, who is accused of killing his father, high-profile businessman Richard Oland, more than four years ago. Richard Oland’s bludgeoned body was discovered face down in a pool of blood in his investment firm office at 52 Canterbury Street in uptown Saint John on July 7, 2011.
The last witness for the Crown was Thomas Suzanski who works at the RCMP forensic lab in Ottawa and was declared an expert in forensic DNA typing at the trial. He produced two forensic lab reports relating to this case.
For the three areas where blood was confirmed on the brown jacket seized from Dennis Oland’s home and the DNA profile matched that of Richard Oland, Suzanksi testifying that his conclusion is that the DNA profile originated from blood. Those three areas were on the outside right sleeve, the upper left chest and the back bottom centre near the hem.
The trial has heard that the only thing missing from Richard Oland’s office was his cell phone. The last communication with cell tower information received on his cell phone was a text message from his mistress, Diana Sedlacek, at 6:44pm on July 6, 2011 and the tower pinged was the Fairvale tower at 2524 Rothesay Road in Rothesay. The likelihood of a cell phone pinging the Fairvale tower located at the Riverside Country Club in Rothesay while being in the uptown Saint John area would be “minimal” according to Joseph Sadoun who was declared a cellular network expert at the trial.
The phone was never found.
The trial has also heard that the day before Richard Oland’s body was discovered, Dennis Oland’s $163,000 line of credit was overdrawn, his Visa account had a $32,000 balance on it and his investment account had a zero balance. Dennis Oland was making monthly payments of 4-percent on a $500,000 loan from his father for his divorce. On July 5, 2011, one of the cheques for $1666.67 was returned non-sufficient funds.
A witness has testified that on July 6, 2011, the combined total of Richard Oland’s companies was about $36-million.
At the beginning of the day a sheriff taking an iPad from a member of the gallery and the jury was asked to leave. Justice Walsh later explaining to them that their identity is protected by law, and the sheriff thought that while the jurors were coming into the courtroom pictures were taken or video was taken. However, Walsh saying that he’s satisfied that no pictures or video was taken.
The Dennis Oland murder trial continues Thursday morning at the Saint John Law Courts at 9:30 and the defence will open its case if it wishes. 65 days have been set aside for this trial.
CHSJ News reporter Laura Lyall is covering the Dennis Oland trial and is live-tweeting the proceedings from the courtroom. You can follow along on the CHSJ News Twitter page or the Wave News Twitter page.
