The jury at Dennis Oland’s second-degree murder trial hearing that he became a suspect in his father’s murder the same day that Richard Oland’s battered body was discovered face down in a pool of blood in his office on Canterbury Street in uptown Saint John.
An agreed statement of facts read out loud by Crown prosecutor PJ Veniot says that Dennis Oland became a suspect in the murder of Richard Oland by 8:22pm on July 7, 2011. At that time he was at the Saint John police headquarters for an interview with Constable Stephen Davidson who would later become the lead investigator in the Richard Oland case. Davidson says that Dennis came into the interview as a witness.
The interview started at 6:01pm and Dennis Oland left the police station on or about 11:01pm that night. The agreed statement of facts also says that after Dennis became a suspect he was informed that search warrants would be executed against him.
Constable Davidson testifying that he was involved in the search of Dennis Oland’s home on Gondola Point Road in Rothesay on July 14, 2011 which was a week after the interview.
Davidson was paired up with Constable Jay Henderson to search the home and described the areas they searched at the home. Davidson says that he seized a pillow and blanket from the master bedroom, items he said had dried blood on them. He did not seize anything from the closet area of the master bedroom saying that was Constable Henderson’s side to search.
He says there were other officers that participated in the search of Dennis’ residence, both exterior and interior.
This on day 22 of the Dennis Oland murder trial. 65 days have been aside.
Our reporter Laura Lyall is covering the trial and is live-tweeting from the courtroom. You can follow along by going to the CHSJ News Twitter page or the Wave News Twitter page.
