A juror has been discharged from Dennis Oland’s second-degree murder trial.
Justice John Walsh told the court Monday morning that the juror was discharged due to an association he had with someone involved in the case.
“The juror had a close association that we were not aware of," said Walsh.
Information explaining the nature of the juror’s association is covered under a publication ban.
The trial is now continuing with 13 jurors, although 12 will ultimately determine the outcome.
Saint John Police Sgt. Mark Smith, a key police witness who searched for fingerprints and collected exhibits for forensic analysis over the course of the investigation, returned to the stand Monday morning.
Smith testified Friday that there were too many fingerprints on items in Richard Oland’s office to be useful.
He also said he did not look for fingerprints on a door that led to a back alley because the deadbolt had already been touched by other officers.
The court heard that Smith collected dozens of exhibits, including blood samples taken from the office, over the course of the investigation and that he accompanied Richard Oland’s body to the hospital morgue.
Smith returned to the stand Monday. He told the court the forensics unit alone collected 564 exhibits during the investigation.
Another item examined was a brown sports jacket that Richard Oland’s secretary Maureen Adamson testified earlier that Dennis Oland was wearing when he visited his father’s office.
However, when shown a security photo of Oland wearing a brown jacket, she could not say whether it was the jacket he was wearing when she left the two men together.
The jacket was submitted into evidence Monday morning by Crown prosecutor P.J. Veniot, who noted that Richard Oland’s DNA was located in four separate parts of the jacket.
The jury was subjected to clerical duty as items were identified and labelled.
The body of 69-year-old Richard Oland, a well-known Saint John businessman, was found inside his office on July 7, 2011.
The Crown has told the jury that Richard Oland was killed in a violent outburst that resulted in 40 blows to his head and neck.
Dennis Oland, 47, has pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder in his father’s death.
With files from the Canadian Press CTV Atlantic’s Mike Cameron.
