Man’s story good enough to win him an acquittal

While she didn’t buy all of a man’s explanation for how he came to be found in a car with an assortment of hard drugs and an unregistered shotgun with his DNA on it, a judge ruled Tuesday in Penticton that his story was still believable enough to set him free.

Warren Johannesen-Quail, 28, was acquitted of eight drug and weapon charges following a weeklong, judgealone trial in B.C. Supreme Court.

The trial heard Johannesen-Quail was arrested May 25, 2016, in the parking lot of the Cascade Gardens townhouse complex by members of the Penticton RCMP Targeted Enforcement Unit, who were there to check on a known drug house.

Johannesen-Quail was initially picked up for driving while prohibited, but a subsequent search of the vehicle he was in turned up a duffel bag in the trunk that contained clothing, the shotgun, ammunition, brass knuckles and a false-bottomed pop can that contained 8.7 grams of cocaine and 16.3 grams of a heroin-fentanyl combination.

A police scientist testified Johannesen-Quail’s DNA was found on a shell that was chambered in the shotgun, but that only a partial match for his DNA was found on the weapon itself.

Johannesen-Quail testified in his own defence that he handled the gun at a party a few days before his arrest, but was not aware the gun or the drugs were in the vehicle, which belonged to a friend of his.

He told the court he was test-driving the vehicle on the day in question to diagnose a brake problem the friend had hired him to fix.

Justice Alison Beames said in her decision she was left with a reasonable doubt about Johannesen-Quail’s guilt and therefore had to acquit him.

“There were many items inside the trunk which could have been submitted for DNA profiling and were not. No effort was made to link the clothing inside the duffel bag in the trunk to Mr. Johannesen-Quail,” noted Beames.

Furthermore, “The value of the items in the duffel bag, including approximately $3,000 to $4,000 in drugs, is not so high as to make it extremely unlikely that the owner of the car or her boyfriend would leave the duffel bag in the trunk for a few hours while their friend was repairing the vehicle.”

And finally, the judge said, “While I do not necessarily believe the evidence of Mr. Johannesen-Quail, given the absence of any other evidence connecting Mr. Johannesen-Quail to the contents of the duffel bag or other contents of the vehicle . . . I’m unable to conclude Mr. Johannesen-Quail’s guilt is the only reasonable inference that can be drawn from the evidence.”

Johannesen-Quail will remain in custody pending transfer to Alberta to face unrelated charges there.