Dennis Oland's bloodstained jacket sat untested for 4 months, murder trial hears

Dennis Oland's bloodstained brown sports jacket sat in a Saint John police locker for nearly four months before undergoing forensic testing because officers didn't realize what they had, his second-degree murder retrial heard on Tuesday.

The jacket is akey piece of evidence in the Crown's case against Oland in the bludgeoning death of his multimillionaire father, Richard, more than seven years ago.

Oland, 50, was wearing a brown jacket when he visited his fatherat his investment firm officeon the evening ofJuly 6, 2011, when he becamethe last known person to have seen him alive.

The body of the 69-year-old was discovered face-down in a pool of blood in the officethe next morning. He had suffered 45 sharp- and blunt-force injuries.

Police seized the jacket from Oland's home a week later. Forensics officerConst. DavidMacDonald testified it was handled by theformer lead investigator with an ungloved hand and then folded up into a brown paper bagmeasuring about 30 centimetres by 30 centimetres.

But it wasNovember before MacDonaldretrieved it from storage for processing.

MacDonaldtold the court he had processed eight pairs of seized footwear first because he had noticed some of the clothing itemshad been dry cleaned, including the jacket, which still had a dry cleaning tag attached to the collar.

The officerwasn't asked to explain what he meant.

When MacDonald did examine the jacket, he found foursmall red "blood-like" stains on the front of the jacket and "diluted" stains on the inside of both cuffs. He also noted the top button was broken.

Earlier in the trial, the court heard Olandhad told police he was wearing a navy blazer when he visited his father the night he was killed,but security video and witness testimony showed he was actually wearing a brown sports jacket.

The brown jacket and several other articles of clothing were taken to be dry cleanedthe morning after Oland was questioned.

The trial resumed in Saint John's Court of Queen's Bench as scheduled on Tuesday,despite the winter storm that hammered the region with snow, freezing rain and rain on Sunday.

MacDonald is scheduled to be cross-examined by the defence on Wednesday at 9:30 a.m.

MacDonald was the forensicsofficer in charge of seizing itemsduring the execution of a search warrant at Dennis Oland's home inRothesayon July 14, 2011.

He testifiedhe asked Const. Rick Russell of the major crime unit to identify which items he wanted seized from the closet in the master bedroom.

"He identifieda brown jacket and did so bygrabbing the jacket with this hand," MacDonald said.

Crown prosecutorJill Knee asked what, if anything, Russell was wearing on his hands.

"He had bare hands," saidMacDonald.

"Wouldit be normal to touch an object when you're going to be seizing it in that kind of manner?" asked Knee.

"No," he replied.

MacDonalddonned a fresh pair of gloves for each item he seized, which included several of Oland's shirts and shoes.

The jacket was the only brown jacket found.

MacDonald"folded [the jacket], rolled it into"a paper exhibit bag and stored it in the forensics office at the police headquarters.

On Nov. 9, 2011, MacDonald examined thejacket in bright lighting and noticed a "red blood-like stain" on one of the elbows. He then found three more twoon the right elbow and oneon the left shoulder, he said.

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MacDonaldsaid hecircled the stained areas with a white china marker, placed a scaled sticker beside each one and photographed them.

The stains were small and difficult to capture in the photos of the dark jacket, said MacDonald. He magnifiedone of them 500 per cent, much like he was trained to do with fingerprints, he said.

For Oland's preliminary inquiry in 2014, MacDonald brightened the exposure on some of the photos to better represent the "slight discolouration of the threads" he had observed under the bright halogen lights.

Nine days after he examined the jacket,MacDonald drove the jacket to Halifax to hand-deliver it to the RCMP forensic labfor testing. Hepicked it up eightmonths later.

He transported the jacket to the labagain on Oct. 26, 2012, and picked it up on Feb. 14, 2013. Cuttings of the jacket were subsequently sent for analysis.

None of the lab results were discussed in court on Tuesday, but during the Crown's opening statement at the beginning of the trial on Nov. 21, Knee said the jacket had four areas of bloodstains on it and DNA that matched the victim's profile.

MacDonald identified a brown jacket in a clear plastic bagas being the jacket in question.It was entered into evidence for the retrial on Tuesday.

A jury foundOlandguilty of second-degree murder in December 2015,but the New Brunswick Court of Appeal overturned his conviction in October 2016 and ordered a new trial, citing an error in the trial judge's instructions to the jury.

He is being tried by judge alone.

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Tuesday marked Day 22 of the retrial. There was a chance the trial wouldn't sit all week if twoofOland'sdefence lawyers, who are based in Toronto, were unable to fly into Saint John because of Sunday's storm. But they arrived late Monday night.

Lead Crown prosecutor P.J.Veniot, who is based in the northern part of the province,missed the morning session butarrived in the afternoon,making his way down on snow-covered, icy highways.

Justice TerrenceMorrison, who is based in Fredericton, said his own drive on Monday was challenging.

MacDonaldalso attended the autopsy on July 8, 2011, to assist forensic Sgt. Mark Smith with examining the body and collecting evidence, the courtroom heard.

They used tape to collect fibresfrom the victim's sweater and cut out a section from the middle lower back, which had a"tiny shiny substance" on it, and seized the clothing, he said.

They also took swabs and fingernail clippings and examined his body using aspecial forensic light with multiple bandwidth settings, designed to make various compounds fluoresce. An area on the victim's shin fluoresced, was photographed andswabbed.

On July 15, 2011,MacDonaldassisted Smith with processing the car DennisOlandhad drivento and from his visit with his father.MacDonaldsaid hetook swabs of the Volkswagen Golf City and performed presumptive tests for blood.

In 2016,MacDonaldreceived a gold commendation for his work in an unrelated case. He was cited for "demonstrating the highest standards of police conduct, under high risk conditions, by using strong verbal commands and sound tactical skills to successfully and peacefully unarm an individual who posed an immediate threat"of death or harm.