The officer currently in charge of the Saint John police’s Major Crime unit, Sergeant Jay Henderson, testifying at the second-degree murder trial of Dennis Oland about finding a brown jacket and a dry-cleaning receipt while participating in the search of Dennis Oland’s home exactly one week after his father’s bludgeoned body was discovered.
The receipt is dated July 8, 2011 at 9:08am and has Lisa Oland’s name on it — that’s Dennis Oland’s wife.
On the receipt it lists one pair of pants, two sports jackets and 16 shirts. The receipt originally said it would be ready on Monday but that’s scratched out and Saturday is written beside that. The prosecution has stated that a brown jacket seized from Dennis Oland’s home had four areas of blood on it and the DNA profile matched that of Richard Oland. A drycleaning tag was still attached to that jacket.
Henderson says he arrived at 58 Gondola Point Road, Dennis’ address, at 11:18am on July 14, 2011 and he left at 7:30pm. Along with the brown jacket, Henderson noted several items contained in the warrant in the master bedroom closet including a blue jacket, men’s shoes and several shirts.
The trial also hearing an agreed statement of facts which states that on the evening of July 6, 2011, Mrs. Barbara Murray and Mr. Douglas LeBlanc saw Dennis Oland at the Renforth Wharf. He was carrying a reusable grocery bag, was wearing a sports jacket and slacks, he bent down and picked something up near the start of the wharf then briskly walked to the very end of the wharf and sat down. Then, Dennis Oland placed the object he picked up near the start of the wharf in the grocery bag then left the area.
In the police interview with Constable Stephen Davidson on July 7, 2011, Dennis Oland said that after visiting his father at his office the day before, he stopped at the Renforth Wharf to see if his kids were there.
The Dennis Oland trial is taking a day off on Friday and resumes again on Monday morning at 9:30 at the Saint John Law Courts.
CHSJ News reporter Laura Lyall is covering the Dennis Oland trial and is live-tweeting the proceedings. You can follow along on the CHSJ News Twitter page or the Wave News Twitter page.
