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No bloodstains found in Dennis Oland's car, officer tells murder trial

Dennis Oland heads to the Law Courts in Saint John, N.B., on Wednesday, Nov. 21, 2018. Although it was dirty and appeared not to have been cleaned, the car Dennis Oland was driving the evening his father, Richard, was murdered did not produce any suspicious bloodstains, a Saint John court was told Tuesday. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Andrew Vaughan

SAINT JOHN, N.B. — Although it was dirty and appeared not to have been cleaned, the car Dennis Oland was driving the evening his father, Richard, was murdered did not produce any suspicious bloodstains, a Saint John court was told Tuesday.

Sgt. Mark Smith is on the stand this week at Dennis Oland’s second-degree murder trial, describing in minute detail the many objects he collected from the crime scene and the search for evidence in and on items belonging to the accused.

Dennis Oland, 50, an investment adviser, is on trial for a second time for the bludgeoning death of his multi-millionaire father, Richard, a member of the prominent Maritime beer-brewing family. He is the last known person to have seen his father alive on July 6, 2011.

Oland has pleaded not guilty. This is a retrial, since an earlier conviction was overturned on appeal and the new trial ordered.

Saint John police seized Dennis Oland’s Volkswagen Golf on July 14, 2011, a week after Richard’s body was found lying on the floor of his Saint John office in a pool of blood. He had been struck more than 40 times, mostly on the head, with both a sharp and blunt instrument.

A weapon was never found.

Smith, a police forensics officer, told the trial on Tuesday that he visually inspected the Golf inside and out and identified several areas for chemical testing.

In addition to possible stains, he told Crown prosecutor P.J. Veniot he was interested in areas that would have been touched, such as the steering wheel and door handles.

But the tests, particularly with chemicals that react to traces of blood, failed to produce positive results, he said,

“I didn’t get a real strong reaction anywhere,” Smith said of his examination of the car.

Oland’s defence team has said the lack of strong blood evidence argues in favour of their client.

The most incriminating blood evidence is several small spots found on the brown jacket Dennis Oland was wearing on July 6, 2011, when he visited his father. The blood spots matched Richard Oland’s DNA profile.

Smith’s calm, careful account of the work he did is in contrast to some difficult testimony last week from police officers who had different and at times conflicting recollections of the investigation.

The former deputy chief of the force, Glen McCloskey, disputed officers’ accounts of his actions, including one allegation that he suggested one officer alter his testimony.

The Canadian Press