Brown jacket becomes focal point of Dennis Oland murder trial

The Crown’s key piece of physical evidence took centre stage at the retrial of Dennis Oland on Tuesday.

Oland, 50, is charged in the July 2011 death of his father, the well-known Saint John businessman Richard Oland.

It is alleged that Dennis was wearing a brown sports jacket on July 6, 2011, the day the Crown says Richard was killed.

READ MORE: Saint John police forensics officer on the stand as Oland murder trial continues

Former Saint John police forensic officer Const. David MacDonald was responsible for examining a Hugo Boss sports jacket seized from Dennis’ Rothesay home one week after the battered body of his father was found at the older man’s Canterbury Street office.

The jacket was one of many items, including several shirts and pairs of shoes, taken from the residence under a search warrant.

MacDonald says that then-lead investigator Rick Russell touched the jacket with his bare hand before MacDonald seized the item while wearing gloves.

MacDonald testified that he examined the jacket visually under a bright light.

“I began to see colours stand out,” he said, describing them as red, blood-like stains.

MacDonald says he noticed two areas on the right elbow and an area on the left shoulder.

Images of the jacket depicted parts of the garment that were marked for testing. MacDonald chronicled at least three separate times that the jacket or parts of it were sent away for laboratory testing.

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The Crown has said the jacket contains four spots of blood with Richard’s DNA.

MacDonald says he assisted then-lead forensic officer Sgt. Mark Smith in the case but had no involvement at the actual crime scene.

MacDonald is set to be cross-examined by the defence on Wednesday.