Appeal court grants Oland new trial
Case based on circumstantial evidence: expert
From the earliest days in Dennis Oland’s murder trial, the Crown faced an uphill battle to convince the jury a precarious balance of circumstantial evidence added up to a guilty verdict.
Nonetheless, in December jurors found the member of the clan that owns Moosehead Breweries guilty of the second-degree murder of his father, Richard, 69.
On Monday, New Brunswick’s appeal court overturned the verdict, based on the trial judge’s lack of caution to jurors about how much weight to place on an alleged lie by Oland, 48, about the colour of the jacket he wore on July 6, 2011.
His lawyer, Alan Gold, said he hoped his client would soon be granted bail and released from custody.
Greg Marquis, author of the book Truth and Honour about the trial, said in a telephone interview it’s not surprising one piece of evidence could be so central, given the Crown’s case was a weave of evidence and “all was circumstantial.”
“It’s the combination of this and other things that come together as a package are very powerful combined with (the jurors’) assessment of (Oland’s) credibility as a witness,” he said.
Marquis added after watching almost all the trial, he was somewhat surprised by the verdict and had to spend some time reflecting on what might have swayed the jury.
He concluded factors like Oland’s statement to police in a taped 2011 videotaped interview that he was wearing a blue jacket, later disproved by video evidence in the trial, may have been key as jurors struggled with who to believe about the evidence.
“There were three or four things that if you believe he was innocent were just unfortunate coincidences. If you believe in his guilt then these things are part of the essential elements,” said Marquis.
As Chief Justice Ernest Drapeau noted in Monday’s ruling, there was “no smoking gun.”
From the preliminary hearing in Saint John, the Crown’s case faced intense attack from Dennis Oland’s lawyers.
When the first images of Richard Oland’s body lying face down in his office flashed up on a courtroom screen, the presiding judge saw a wide circle of the victim’s blood splattered around after 45 sharp and blunt force injuries to his head.
The defence raised the sharp contrast between those startling visual images of the spattered blood and the minuscule stains on a brown jacket that contained DNA matching Richard Oland’s profile.
No murder weapon was found. No blood was found in Oland’s car. There were questions about whether the stains were blood or some other substance.
Though there was evidence a ping was heard from Richard Oland’s cellphone in the general area of his son’s route to his home in Rothesay, the phone was never found and there was no clear explanation why Dennis would have taken it.
The defence said that just minutes after the alleged bludgeoning, Dennis Oland was calling his wife and within an hour he was videotaped shopping in shorts and a golf shirt.
He was also heard calmly chatting with his aunt, the dead man’s sister.
Gold argued it simply made no sense that a quiet man without a strong motive would commit a horrific murder in a vicious, 15-minute outburst, then calmly leave without extensive physical evidence linking him to the crime.
Marquis said in his book’s closing chapter he devised scenarios of an “innocent Oland” and a “guilty Oland”; in the guilty scenario he had to imagine Oland doing things such as covering his vehicle or himself with materials that prevented any sign of blood.
He said he came to believe the jurors disbelieved Oland’s testimony in his defence.
He said factors like Dennis Oland’s “alleged lie” in the videotaped police interview may have played a role in their decision, even though there was also video evidence earlier in the day that Oland was wearing a blue jacket at his office and may have simply been confused.
Marquis said jurors may also have doubted Oland’s testimony about his relationship with his father, as he shifted from the 2011 police video interview describing a relationship troubled by financial disagreements and a love affair his father was having.
In his testimony, Oland downplayed his troubled finances, and said he had not discussed his finances or the affair with his father when they met at his office to discuss research into their family history.
Marquis said the case has not only an enduring importance because of the prominence of the victim, but also in legal circles: it was one of the province’s longest murder trials, with one of the most extensive and longest charges ever made to a jury in New Brunswick.
He said he doubts the appeal court ruling raises questions about the validity of jury verdicts, as the appeal court’s decision focuses clearly on Justice John Walsh’s instructions to the jury.
IF YOU BELIEVE IN HIS GUILT THEN THESE THINGS ARE PART OF THE ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS.