Case against defendant is weak, lawyer says
Judge set to make decision in drug case of Justin Hopkins on Friday
The case against a man charged after a drug bust in the east end of St. John’s last spring is a weak one without much evidence, his lawyer suggested to the court Monday.
Defence lawyer Lesley Pike and prosecutor Elaine Reid presented their closing submissions in the trial of 33-year-old Justin Hopkins, charged with six counts of possessing drugs for the purpose of trafficking, one count of drug trafficking and one count of possessing a weapon for a dangerous purpose. He is also charged with three counts of breaching court orders.
Over the course of the trial, the court heard how Hopkins was arrested alongside James Lucas, 40, late on April 28 in a car in the parking lot of Tim Hortons on Major’s Path and Torbay Road. Police had been watching the pair and the vehicle in connection with an investigation into drug trafficking out of a home on Beaufort Place.
Police found a small baggie of cocaine under the passenger seat, where Hopkins had been sitting, as well as drug paraphernalia in the glove box. Lucas was found to be carrying two more baggies of drugs, while Hopkins had cash and a knife, police say.
A police search of the Beauford Place home turned up marijuana and drug-related items.
Lab tests showed the drugs included cocaine and heroin laced with fentanyl, a powerful synthetic opioid painkiller responsible for dozens of overdoses in the St. John’s area this year.
Reid pointed to the knife Hopkins had been carrying and the drugs under his seat — along with police sightings of him and Lucas on short meetings with others — as evidence of Hopkins’ involvement in drug trafficking.
“One individual is carrying money, the other individual is carrying the drugs. It’s a tactic to avoid being detected,” Reid said, adding it’s a way to avoid losing everything if one person is robbed.
“It’s an explanation I am putting before the court as to why Mr. Hopkins didn’t have drugs in his pocket,” Reid said. “It’s a business venture between those two individuals.”
Pike disputed Reid’s explanation, saying there was no evidence to suggest it was factual.
A third person who wasn’t charged had been in the vehicle behind Hopkins when he was arrested, and the drugs located under the seat were closer to him than to Hopkins, Pike said. As for the items in the glove box, it wasn’t Hopkins’ car, she said.
“Even the knife,” Pike said. “If you do find it’s a weapon, there’s no evidence certainly of the item being used, and particularly no evidence of it being (in his possession) for a dangerous purpose.
“There’s evidence that Mr. Hopkins was in a vehicle where drugs were present, that he did leave his house twice on the evening of April 28, but that’s all the Crown can prove beyond a reasonable doubt.”
Judge David Orr will bring down his decision Friday.