The second-degree murder trial of Dennis Oland hearing that 57 items were seized from his home on July 14, 2011, exactly one week after his father, Richard Oland, was found dead in his investment firm office in uptown Saint John.
The trial hearing testimony from Constable David MacDonald, who was a forensic identification technician with the Saint John police in July of 2011 and was the “seizing officer” during the search of Dennis Oland’s home.
Among the items seized was a brown sports jacket taken from the closet of the master bedroom which the prosecution says had four areas of blood on it and the DNA profile matched that of Richard Oland. MacDonald says the original lead investigator in Richard Oland’s death, Constable Rick Russell, identified that jacket and touched the jacket on the sleeve with his bare hands before MacDonald could tell him not to. MacDonald says he noticed that the jacket, which he seized, had a dry cleaning tag on it.
MacDonald also seized a dry cleaning receipt from V-I-P Dry Cleaners from the home that same day. 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 print-out shows that the order would be ready on Monday however that is scratched out and Saturday is hand-written beside that.
MacDonald examined the jacket twice, once on November 9, 2011 and again on November 17 of that same year. He was looking for blood on the jacket. MacDonald showing the jury photos of stains that he noted on the jacket.
MacDonald was also involved in the search of a boat, named Loki, at the Royal Kennebecasis Yacht Club on July 21, 2011. He says that he forensically examined the boat and that exhibits were seized and swabs taken.
CHSJ News reporter Laura Lyall is covering the Dennis Oland trial and is live-tweeting from the courtroom. You can follow along on the CHSJ News Twitter page or the Wave News Twitter page.
