New Brunswick’s top judge has pointed out on the second day of the murder conviction appeal hearing of Dennis Oland in Fredericton that the defence didn’t make a motion for a directed verdict of acquittal at the trial after the Crown closed its case, though they did have the option.
“That’s when defence lawyers know in their hearts of heart that the evidence is so weak that the case should not go to the jury, it’s called a motion for a directed verdict of acquittal,” says Chief Justice Ernest Drapeau.
One of the witnesses, Anthony Shaw, testified at the second-degree murder trial of Dennis Oland that he heard thumping and pounding noises around 7:30pm on the evening of July 6 on the first first floor of 52 Canterbury Street — the day before Richard Oland’s body was found. Dennis Oland, however, is captured on surveillance tape at that time running errands in the Kennebecasis Valley.
One the first day of the appeal hearing, defence lawyer Alan Gold referred to Shaw’s evidence as a “reverse alibi” for Oland.
“Gold, you’re an experienced criminal defence lawyer, so is Mr. [Gary] Miller,” says Drapeau.
“You did not make a motion for a directed verdict of acquittal…so you sat in that courtroom through 65 days of proceedings and when the Crown closed its case, despite Mr. Shaw’s testimony, it was your professional judgement that there was enough of a case to go to the jury.”
Gold responded that it was their understanding that to make that motion would be both “inappropriate” and “essentially a waste of time.”
“Just so we’re very clear, we always took the position there was no case,” says Gold. “We argued vehemently at the preliminary inquiry.”
(Oland’s lawyers outside the Saint John courthouse: Laura Lyall)
Drapeau says he’s not saying Gold made a mistake in not motioning for directed verdict of acquittal in #Oland case. Court takes a.m. break
— Laura Lyall (@LauraLyall) October 19, 2016
Court resumes. Gold says that Anthony’s Shaw’s evidence is the ‘perfect context’ to deal with the issue of the unreasonable verdict #Oland.
— Laura Lyall (@LauraLyall) October 19, 2016
Shaw was ‘exceptional witness’. Gold arguing through ‘lens of judicial experience’ this court should see jury shouldn’t reject his evidence.
— Laura Lyall (@LauraLyall) October 19, 2016
The Chief Justice pointed out to Gold that at the end of the day, 12 jurors who heard the evidence of Shaw convicted. To say the jury got it wrong would be “very exceptional intervention,” he says.
Gold concluded his arguments by saying that once you consider all the evidence, the innocence of Dennis Oland is the only “resonable inference.”
Dennis Oland is looking to be acquitted or to have a new trial ordered. He has been sentenced to life in prison without the chance of parole for at least 10 years in the brutal death of his multimillionaire father, Richard Oland, back in 2011.
