Judge in Oland preliminary hearing left with unanswered questions

SAINT JOHN, N.B. -- The judge who committed Dennis Oland to trial said police were too quick to conclude that Oland killed his father, and that there were many unanswered questions about the case.

Judge Ronald LeBlanc also said the Crown failed to prove at the preliminary hearing that Oland had a motive to kill his millionaire father.

The body of Richard Oland, 69, was found face down in a pool of blood in his Saint John office on July 7, 2011. He had suffered 45 blunt and sharp force blows to his head, neck and hands.

In the 2014 ruling, which has been released for the first time, LeBlanc points out that no murder weapon was ever found, and that Richard Oland's iPhone was also missing from the crime scene.

"The disappearance of Richard Oland's iPhone continues to be a mystery. No explanation was given as to why Dennis Oland would want to take it," LeBlanc said.

During the preliminary hearing, the Crown said Dennis Oland, a financial advisor, was in dire financial circumstances and may have gone to his father on the evening of July 6, 2011, to ask for financial help and would have had motive if his father said no.

But LeBlanc said there was no evidence the younger Oland asked his father for money.

"In addition, the very friendly reception given to Dennis Oland by his father at their meeting in his office would allow a jury to conclude as to an absence of animosity."

"For these reasons, at least at the preliminary inquiry stage, there does not appear to be any motive proven that would establish that Dennis Oland had a reason to kill his father."

Saint John police interviewed a number of people on the day Richard Oland's body was found, including employees of Printing Plus, a business located below Oland's office. Two employees reported hearing thumping noises coming from Oland's office the night before but couldn't be certain if it was at the same time that Dennis Oland and his wife were captured on security video while shopping in Rothesay.

Police also interviewed members of the Oland family, including a five-hour interrogation of Dennis Oland. Oland was uncertain of the routes he had driven the previous day and said he had been wearing a blue blazer, while other witnesses and subsequent security video showed him wearing a brown jacket.

Halfway through that interview, police pointed out the inconsistencies, read Oland his rights, and accused him of killing his father.

"With respect, this conclusion on their part was totally unjustified and indeed irrational. The explanations given by Dennis Oland could not have formed the basis for a reasonable belief that he had murdered his father," LeBlanc wrote.

LeBlanc said it was incredulous that despite the fact that Oland said he was wearing the same pants and shoes from the day before, he was allowed to leave the police station without any attempt by police to seize the clothing.

LeBlanc said there were also unanswered questions about the handling of Dennis Oland's brown jacket -- noting that it was dry cleaned just 10 hours after police accused Oland of the murder and said they would be executing search warrants.

In the end, LeBlanc said he had to decide whether a properly instructed jury could conclude that Oland killed his father. He said there were certain facts, that when combined with the rest of the evidence could allow a jury to come to that conclusion.

LeBlanc said those included DNA on the jacket that matched the profile of Richard Oland, Dennis Oland's apparent lie about which jacket he wore to his father's office, and the time when Richard Oland stopped using his computer. He said the jury could also conclude that the attack on Richard Oland was not a robbery or theft, but rather a crime of passion.

He committed Oland to stand trial.

In December, following a trial that lasted more than 50 days, a jury convicted Dennis Oland of second-degree murder, and he was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 10 years.

His lawyers are appealing the verdict, but the appeal is not expected to be heard until the fall.

In their notice of appeal, the defence lawyers say the verdict was unreasonable and the judge made numerous errors in his jury instructions. They also say the judge erred in admitting certain evidence, including the results of forensic testing on Oland's brown jacket.