Robert Jones @cbcjones May 9
Back to the Shaw issue for a moment. Justice Morrison was asking about a Sulreme Court instruction on how to assess the credibility of witnesses and what to do with that assessment. That decision in part reads:
Robert Jones @cbcjones May 9
“First, if you believe the evidence of the accused, obviously you must acquit. Second, if you do not believe the testimony of the accused but you are left in reasonable doubt by it, you must acquit......
Robert Jones @cbcjones May 9
“....Third, even if you are not left in doubt by the evidence of the accused, you must ask yourself whether, on the basis of the evidence which you do accept, you are convinced beyond a reasonable doubt by that evidence of the guilt of the accused.”
Robert Jones @cbcjones May 9
Morrison is pondering whether he should apply the same test not just to Dennis Oland but to witnesses like Anthony Shaw.
Robert Jones @cbcjones May 9
Court resumes. Alan Gold begins final argument for the defence.
Robert Jones @cbcjones May 9
Gold starts with a discussion of the dangers of circumstantial evidence and the human tendency to view meaning and patterns in separate events that are not in reality connected.
Robert Jones @cbcjones May 9
It’s an issue of “confirmation bias” says Gold where facts that appear to support a view of events are given importance and facts that do not support that view are dismissed.
Robert Jones @cbcjones May 9
The defence has argued from early in the trial that SJ police fixated on Dennis Oland as the guilty party early on and viewed everything in the case through that prism without considering other possibilities.
Robert Jones @cbcjones May 9
This case is a textbook example of confirmation bias argues Gold.
Robert Jones @cbcjones May 9
Lots of evidence of Richard Oland not using his phone and computers or returning messages the entire day of the murder and yet the crown views inactivity after 6:30 as evidence he was dead. Why? Confirmation bias.
Robert Jones @cbcjones May 9
Anthony Shaw’s very clear testimony of hearing the murder at 7:30 is dismissed as a guesstimate because it doesn’t fit the Crown’s theory. Richard Oland’s phone connecting to the Rothesay cell tower at 6:44 is considered proof Dennis has the phone only because it fits the theory
Robert Jones @cbcjones May 9
There are other possibilities the phone connects to that tower - Richard Oland himself went out for a drink for example - but that is dismissed because it doesn’t fit the theory.
Robert Jones @cbcjones May 9
Gold attacking the testimony of John Ainsworth who also heard the noises Anthony Shaw heard. Ainsworth agreed the time of the noises were after 7:30 for three months after the murder until he realized that helped Dennis Oland.
Robert Jones @cbcjones May 9
Then he changes his story that they could have been much earlier, says Gold. He is not believable.
Robert Jones @cbcjones May 9
Had to step out briefly to file a story for radio news but have returned to court. Gold still building case that police bias and instant belief in Dennis Oland’s guilt tainted its evaluation of all evidence.
Robert Jones @cbcjones May 9
Gold dismisses errors and omissions in Dennis Oland’s statement to police as innocent mistakes - not significant evidence of guilt as posited by the crown.
Robert Jones @cbcjones May 9
Dennis Oland’s zig zag route after leaving his father’s office for the second time as caught on security footage is not evidence of distress or disorientation - just normal distracted behaviour says Gold.
Robert Jones @cbcjones May 9
Oland leaves the office and turns left (his car is to the right) and walks for a bit and eventually crosses to the wrong side of the street before recrossing back to his car.
Robert Jones @cbcjones May 9
Crown’s theory is that Dennis has been rejected for financial help by his father during visit #2 and leaves in distress before returning for the murder in visit #3. Gold says lots of people forget where they park.
Robert Jones @cbcjones May 9
Gold concludes by rejecting the idea that there are too many circumstances that suggest Oland’s guilt to be dismissed. He visits the day of the murder. He arrived and leaves three times. He wears a jacket that has blood and his father’s DNA on it......
Robert Jones @cbcjones May 9
.....he’s facing significant financial problems with the murder victim his largest creditor. The only item missing from the murder scene - a cell phone - connects to a cell tower in Rothesay at the same time Dennis is also in Rothesay. ...
Robert Jones @cbcjones May 9
.....statements to police include key omissions and errors including about the third and final visit to the office and the blood stained jacket worn that day. All these random events pieced together do not add up to a guilty verdict says Gold.
Robert Jones @cbcjones May 9
The crown has argued it is beyond belief that some other unknown person has committed the murder and just got lucky that all of these circumstances arose one after the other on that day to wrongly point to Dennis Oland instead.
Robert Jones @cbcjones May 9
Morrison asks a number of pointed questions to Gold about his submission. Court breaks for lunch.
Robert Jones @cbcjones 1d1 day ago
Court is back in session and Justice Morrison continues to press defence lawyer Alan Gold in some of the elements of his final argument.
Robert Jones @cbcjones 24h24 hours ago
He’s also putting issues to Gold that the Crown has critiqued about the defence in its written final argument.
Robert Jones @cbcjones 24h24 hours ago
A lot of the questions are on very minor points. Morrison appears to want to dot every i and cross every t.
Robert Jones @cbcjones 24h24 hours ago
Morrison concludes his questioning of Gold. The Crown is invited to deliver the oral version of its final argument.
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Robert Jones @cbcjones 24h24 hours ago
Lead crown prosecutor PJ Veniot begins, as the defence did this morning, by making corrections in the written submission. Veniot says there are six.
Robert Jones @cbcjones 24h24 hours ago
The changes are not major. The first one is in relation to Richard Oland’s cell phone being “off or disabled” after receiving one last text message from Diana Sedlacek at 6:44 the evening of the murder. Veniot says the word “disabled” was not used at trial and should be struck.
Robert Jones @cbcjones 23h23 hours ago
Veniot switching to main argument. There is no tunnel vision or bias in this case says Veniot. The police did not ignore evidence that did not fit with Dennis Oland’s guilt.
Robert Jones @cbcjones 23h23 hours ago
Look at the search of Dennis Oland’s car. It turned up no useful evidence. We shared all of this with the defence. Credible witnesses who did not support the crown’s case - like Anthony Shaw - were called to testify by the crown.
Robert Jones @cbcjones 23h23 hours ago
We have concluded there is other evidence about time of Richard Oland’s murder that makes Anthony Shaw’s time estimate doubtful. That is not tunnel vision. That is evaluating all the evidence together.
Robert Jones @cbcjones 23h23 hours ago
We are asking for a common sense evaluation of all the evidence together. Do not look at bits and pieces in isolation. Look at the entire picture and how everything fits together.
Robert Jones @cbcjones 23h23 hours ago
Dennis Oland visits his father unannounced. The day he visits his finances are in the worst shape they have ever been. He’s deeply in debt and overdrawn.
Robert Jones @cbcjones 23h23 hours ago
He visits three times. He does not go all the way in the first time. He turns around and leaves. The second time he sits in his car for ten minutes before entering. After this second visit he comes out of the office disoriented and wanders up and down the street.
Robert Jones @cbcjones 23h23 hours ago
He texts his sister instead of his wife by mistake. Veniot reminds Morrison that the Court of Appeal already found this theory of a financial discussion between Richard and Dennis going badly was speculative but not unreasonable.
Robert Jones @cbcjones 23h23 hours ago
Although Richard Oland’s body is found by his desk and computers there is no use of the computers or cell phone after Dennis leaves at 6:30. No signs of life from Richard at all.
Robert Jones @cbcjones 23h23 hours ago
There is a brutal murder but no robbery. The only missing item is a cell phone and the phone connects to a cell tower in Rothesay at 6:44 - just as Dennis Oland heads to Rothesay following his third and final visit.
Bobbi-Jean MacKinnon @BJMCBC 22h22 hours ago
As the Court of Appeal chief justice said, there is no "smoking gun" in this case, says Veniot. "We would not be asking you to draw inferences if we had direct evidence of everything, but there are gaps" which is not out of the ordinary for these types of cases, he tells Morrison
Bobbi-Jean MacKinnon @BJMCBC 22h22 hours ago
The "reasonable inference" is Oland wore his brown sports jacket during the crime: he wore it that day, he was the last known person to see his father alive, he had exclusive opportunity to commit the offence, he lied to police about which jacket he wore...
Bobbi-Jean MacKinnon @BJMCBC 22h22 hours ago
..., the jacket was dry cleaned the day after police told him he was a suspect, the jacket had bloodstains on it and DNA matching his father's profile. This did not arise from "circular reasoning" defence accuses Crown of, says Veniot.
Robert Jones @cbcjones 23h23 hours ago
The jacket Dennis Oland wore that day is eventually found to have blood and his father’s DNA on it. He tells police he was wearing something else. And the jacket is sent to be dry cleaned the morning after Oland is interviewed by police.
Bobbi-Jean MacKinnon @BJMCBC 22h22 hours ago
"This is a case about all the evidence and how it fits together - not trying to explain away individual pieces of evidence in a vacuum," argues Veniot.
Bobbi-Jean MacKinnon @BJMCBC 22h22 hours ago
This was not a robbery, says Veniot. The only thing missing from the crime scene was the victim's cellphone and a "note" from the woman he was having an affair with, which the court "knows nothing about," he says.
Robert Jones @cbcjones 23h23 hours ago
Richard Oland was killed by Dennis Oland and no one else, concludes Veniot. That is our submission.
Bobbi-Jean MacKinnon @BJMCBC 22h22 hours ago
Richard Oland suffered 45 blows, says Veniot. This was a "crime of passion, this was personal. It was not a random killing by a crackhead, we submit," he says, referring to a comment Dennis Oland made to police during his videotaped statement
Bobbi-Jean MacKinnon @BJMCBC 22h22 hours ago
Oland "lied" to police about what jacket he was wearing, Veniot alleges, to mislead the investigation. After being told search warrants would be executed, the jacket was dry cleaned the next morning. Despite this, blood and DNA matching father's profile was found, he says
Bobbi-Jean MacKinnon @BJMCBC 22h22 hours ago
When one considers all this together, the only reasonable conclusion that can be reached is that it was Dennis Oland who killed Richard Oland, says Veniot.
Bobbi-Jean MacKinnon @BJMCBC 22h22 hours ago
After careful consideration of the entirety of the evidence, the Crown has proven beyond a reasonable doubt that Dennis Oland murdered Richard Oland, Veniot asserts
