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Dennis Oland's blood-stained jacket was dry cleaned hours after police questioning

Dennis Oland's blood-stained brown sports jacket was dropped off to be dry cleaned the morning after he was questioned by Saint John police about the death of his father, and next-day service was requested, his murder retrial heard Tuesday.

But the dry cleaner didn't notice any stains on the jacket.

Jinhee Choi, who co-owns VIP Dry Cleaners with her husband, confirmed the yellow tag still attached to the jacket collar is the type the company uses and the serial number on the tag corresponds with an order dropped off at the Rothesay shop on July 8, 2011, at 9:08 a.m.

The order was under the name of Oland's wife, Lisa, and included another sports jacket, a pair of pants and 16 dress shirts, she told the court, with the help of a Korean interpreter flown in from British Columbia.

A receipt seized from Oland's home on July 14, 2011, matched the store copy.

VIP's normal turnaround time is two business days, said Choi, but "Mon" for Monday on the receipt was crossed out and "Sat" for Saturday was handwritten instead.

Choi said Lisa picked the items up the next day, and she recalled seeing Oland waiting outside in the passenger seat of the couple's vehicle.

Court exhibit
Court exhibit

Oland, 50, is being retried for second-degree murder in the death of his father, multimillionaire Richard Oland.

He was the last known person to see his father alive when he visited him at his office on July 6, 2011, from around 5:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.

The body of the 69-year-old was discovered in his office the next morning, face down in a pool of blood. He had suffered 45 sharp- and blunt-force injuries to his head, neck and hands. No weapon was ever found.

Oland told police he was wearing a navy blazer the day his father was killed, but witnesses and security video showed he was wearing a brown sports jacket.

The jacket was later found to have four areas of blood on it and DNA matching the victim's profile, Crown prosecutor Jill Knee said during opening remarks at the retrial. It is a key piece of evidence in the Crown's case against Oland.

Canadian Yachting Association
Canadian Yachting Association

The defence has downplayed the significance of the jacket being dry cleaned, arguing the family needed clean clothes for the upcoming visitation and funeral.

They have suggested the small blood stains were the result of innocent transfer.

Lead defence lawyer Alan Gold stressed Tuesday that Choi and her husband always check items for any stains that might require special treatment before cleaning but told police they didn't notice any blood on the jacket.

"That's the truth, correct?" he asked.

"Yes," she replied.

Gold suggested if someone brought in an item with lots of bloodstains on it, Choi would remember that. She agreed.

He also pointed out Lisa had requested same-day service before on her previous order on June 24, which was also a Friday.

Defence wanted blood, DNA evidence thrown out

Oland's defence team wanted to have forensic evidence from his blood-stained brown sports jacket deemed inadmissible at his murder retrial but realized the judge was bound by a higher court decision on the issue, recently released court documents show.

In February, as part of a pre-trial hearing, the defence filed written arguments on its Charter objection to any evidence Saint John police derived from forensic testing of the jacket, which was seized from Oland's bedroom closet one week after his father's body was discovered.

"While the defence would wish to revisit the issue of whether the forensic testing of the jacket was authorized by the house warrant, it appears this Honourable Court is bound by [the first trial judge's] ruling on the issue, which was upheld by the Court of Appeal of New Brunswick," the defence brief states.

"Accordingly, the defence makes no further submissions."

A jury found Oland guilty of second-degree murder in December 2015, but the 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.

Oland's lawyers tried to have the Hugo Boss jacket thrown out as evidence at his first trial, arguing there was insufficient information for the house search warrant to be granted, and that any testing of the jacket required additional judicial authorization.

But Court of Queen's Bench Justice John Walsh ruled the warrant and testing were both valid.

In 2017, the New Brunswick Court of Appeal upheld Walsh's decision.

"I am in agreement with the trial judge's rulings and the supporting reasons he has provided," Chief Justice Ernest Drapeau wrote on behalf of the three-justice panel. "Nothing further need be said on point."

Still, the defence reiterated its objection earlier this year in its pre-trial brief, which was previously under a publication ban.

"The defence maintains that the house warrant did not authorize the post-seizure forensic testing of the jacket and, relying on the written and oral submissions made in the 2015 Charter application, objects to the admissibility of this evidence," the lawyers wrote.

They also submitted two cases decided after Walsh's 2015 ruling, which they contend support their view that the forensic testing of the jacket was a separate search from the search authorized by the house warrant, "involving a different level of privacy interests, and therefore a separate judicial warrant of authorization."

The publication ban was lifted once Court of Queen's Bench Justice Terrence Morrison declared a mistrial of Oland's jury retrial. The case is now being heard by Morrison alone, without a jury.