DNA expert testifies at Dennis Oland murder trial on blood found on jacket

Dennis Oland arrives at the Law Courts in Saint John, N.B. on Sept. 9, 2015. (THE CANADIAN PRESS / Andrew Vaughan)

SAINT JOHN, N.B. -- A brown sports jacket seized from the home of Dennis Oland tested positive for blood, and DNA samples matched the profile of Richard Oland, an expert in DNA analysis told Dennis Oland's murder trial Tuesday.

Oland has pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder in the death of his father, a well known New Brunswick businessman, whose badly beaten body was found in his Saint John office on July 7, 2011.

DNA expert Joy Kearsey was a scientist at the RCMP lab in Halifax when she was asked to examine the jacket. She completed 11 reports on the case, amassing 1,400 pages of notes.

Crown and defence lawyers pared that information down to 52 pages for the jury.

Kearsey testified the DNA typing profiles obtained from five samples extracted from the jacket matched those of the known sample from Richard Oland. She said DNA was obtained from three places on Dennis Oland's jacket where blood was confirmed: the outside right sleeve, the outside upper left chest and the outside back near the hem.

"The estimated probability of selecting an unrelated individual at random from the Canadian Caucasian population is one in 510 billion," she told the court.

DNA of a mixed origin was extracted from two samples taken inside the right cuff of the jacket where blood could not be confirmed. Kearsey said the major component matched the profile of Richard Oland and the estimated probability of selecting an unrelated individual randomly from Canada's Caucasian population is one in 180 million.

The minor component in the first mixed sample matched the profile of Dennis Oland while there was not enough information from the second sample to find a match, she said.

Kearsey said in places where there was blood confirmed, the DNA extracted from those locations likely came from the blood. However she said the DNA could be from a different source such as saliva or perspiration if the blood had degraded.

During cross-examination, defence lawyer Alan Gold said all of the blood stains were very small -- only a few millimetres in size.

He said Kearsey had no way to know if the blood was the source of the DNA.

"You have no information on the age of the blood, if it was degraded or not. You don't have enough information," said Gold.

"Correct," Kearsey replied.

Gold said DNA looks the same whether it came from blood, sweat or tears. Again Kearsey replied, "Correct."

"DNA can be transferred by touching someone?" Gold asked. "Yes," Kearsey said.

She also agreed when he suggested that the DNA could have been on the jacket for weeks or months, and no one knows.

The jury was told earlier in the trial that when the brown jacket was seized from Dennis Oland's home, it was folded and put into a small paper bag where it remained for months before it was tested.

Gold asked if DNA could have been transferred from one part of the jacket to another by contact when the jacket was folded and placed inside the bag. Kearsey agreed.

A number of other areas of the jacket were tested, but the quantity of human DNA did not meet minimum requirements for further processing, Kearsey said.

Dennis Oland had told police he was wearing a navy blazer when he visited his father on July 6, 2011, but witnesses and security camera video shown at the trial show him wearing a brown jacket that day.

Kearsey was asked about blood that was tested from various places at the crime scene. In each case the DNA matched the profile of Richard Oland.

Three hairs from Richard Oland's left hand and one from his right hand were deemed unsuitable for nuclear DNA analysis.

The trial continues Wednesday.