Wise not tied to evidence, jury told
Wise not tied to evidence, jury told
The murder case against Jimmy Wise is little more than a story, his defence lawyer says, that cannot be relied upon to convict him.
In his closing argument Tuesday, defence lawyer Ian Carter told the jury that the case against Wise lacks compelling evidence of all kinds: a murder weapon, fingerprints, DNA traces, eyewitnesses, a confession.
“The Crown has told you a story, but a story is not the same thing as evidence. What the Crown has really offered you is a theory,” he said.
The entire theory — that Wise shot Ray Collison in a Chesterville garage because he considered him a pest, drove his corpse to a remote culvert in a truck and dragged his body into it with an engine belt — relies exclusively on circumstantial evidence, he said, each piece of which is open to other interpretations.
“Not a single witness testified that they ever saw Mr. Wise with a gun, much less the murder weapon,” Carter told the jury. “That's an enormous gap in the Crown's theory that they're asking you to paper over.”
Wise, 77, a retired mechanic, is charged with second-degree murder in the death of Collison, who was shot at least three times from behind. The 58-year-old Chesterville handyman disappeared in August 2009, but his skeletal remains were not discovered until April 2014.
Earlier Tuesday, Crown attorney Jason Pilon told the jury in his closing argument that the only issue in the case is who killed Collison. “All roads lead back to one person and one person only: James Henry Wise,” Pilon said.
Wise, he said, was the only person who benefited both personally and financially from Collison's death.
Evidence has established, Pilon said, that Wise sold Collison's truck and trailer 10 months after his disappearance for $1,600. Wise possessed keys for both, Pilon noted, arguing that the only reasonable inference to be drawn from that is that Wise took them from Collison's key chain after he shot him.
Carter, however, suggested it's more reasonable to infer that Wise, who sold Collison the truck, had an extra set of keys, and that he changed the locks on the trailer in order to sell it.
Pilon also told jurors that the nature of Collison's shooting — something he described as “overkill” with five or six bullets fired — also suggests that the murderer held a grudge against him.
To that end, Pilon reminded jurors that witnesses have testified that Wise didn't like Collison's drinking and swearing, considered him a pest and had warned him not to come around anymore.
Pilon also highlighted the fact that an automotive belt and shackle were found with Collison's body. That improvised tool, he contended, was used to drag Collison's corpse into the narrow culvert. A similar make and model of belt was found, years later, in Wise's backyard garage, where he repaired cars.
“Together, these two belts tie Mr. Wise to the murder of Raymond Collison. It's not merely a curious fact or an isolated coincidence,” Pilon argued. “In this case, the inescapable conclusion is that the simple tool of a mechanic was fashioned into the improvised tool of a murderer.”
Pilon urged the jury to fit together those facts with other puzzle pieces — a bullet hole found in Wise's garage, blood stains in the back of his old truck, the lies Wise told about Collison's disappearance — to form the real picture of Collison's murder that Wise has been trying to hide.
Ontario Superior Court Justice Kevin Phillips is expected to deliver his instructions to the jury today.