'You must acquit': Guido Amsel did not send bombs, lawyer says in closing arguments
Amsel's suggestion ex-wife sent letter bombs 'doesn't raise a reasonable doubt': Crown
When Guido Amsel thought he was wronged, he resorted to the courts and police — not bombs — his lawyer told a Winnipeg court in a closing argument Tuesday morning.
A prosecutor, meanwhile, argued Amsel's "contrived" explanations surrounding DNA evidence don't "raise a reasonable doubt" about his guilt.
Amsel, 51, is on trial charged with five counts of attempted murder, several explosives related offences and other charges in connection with mail bombs delivered to his ex-wife, Iris Amsel, and two Winnipeg law firms in July 2015, as well as a 2013 explosion outside his ex-wife's RM of St. Clements home.
Amsel testified in his own defence and denied any involvement in the bombings or any knowledge how to make bombs.
He was "unshaken" in his testimony, defence lawyer Saheel Zaman told Judge Tracey Lord.
"If you believe the evidence of the accused, you must acquit him, and we say that you should," Zaman said.
Court has heard Guido and Iris Amsel divorced in 2004 and continued to work together at his autobody shop until he came to believe she had stolen up to $4 million from the business.
Amsel went to police with his complaint in 2011, and later went to a number of lawyers, Zaman said.
"There's no evidence he sent any bombs in 2011," he said. "You would think if anybody had a lot of animosity, that would be the time period."
Maria Mitousis, Iris Amsel's then lawyer, lost her right hand after activating a digital recorder that had been sent to her in the mail in July 2015. Mail bombs delivered to Iris Amsel's workplace and the office of Guido Amsel's former lawyer were safely detonated by police.
Zaman spent a great deal of time detailing the police seizure of countless exhibits following the explosions, alleging insufficient measures were taken to prevent cross-contamination.
Amsel 'trying to make sense' of charges: defence
Court heard "no evidence at all" any exhibits were contaminated, Crown attorney Chris Vanderhooft said.
"Suggesting these possibilities doesn't make them evidence," he said.
Court has heard testimony the bombs were made with triacetone triperoxide, or TATP, a highly volatile explosive compound that can be synthesized from easy-to-obtain household chemicals.
A search of Amsel's Pandora Avenue home uncovered no evidence he had been synthesizing TATP, Zaman said.
"Did you hear any evidence a search of his computers showed he was looking up how to make TATP?" he said. "There was none of that in respect to this matter."
Amsel's DNA was found on a piece of string found near a crater left by a 2013 explosion outside Iris Amsel's house and on a plastic pouch that held the digital recorder delivered to Mitousis.
The Crown argued the string was part of a "tripwire" used to detonate the bomb.
Zaman urged Lord to use caution in assessing the DNA evidence.
"Just because there is DNA … it can't tell you there was direct contact, it can't tell you who was the last person to touch the exhibit," how long it was there or if the last person to touch the exhibit left any DNA, Zaman said.
Among the Crown's evidence are two handheld voice recorders that were found in a safe at Amsel's home.
Amsel testified earlier this month that he used the recorders in his home to record Christmas songs with his children and conversations with a lawyer.
"They were not being used to build bombs," Zaman repeated to Lord on Tuesday.
Amsel has testified he feels Iris is behind the bombs — going so far as to send bombs to her own home and workplace — and he believes some lawyers and police officers have been involved in efforts to build a case against him.
Zaman said Amsel's theories are not evidence of any guilt.
"It's indicative of a man trying to make sense of why he has been charged with something he didn't do."
Amsel's 'explanations don't hold water': Crown
Vanderhooft said there is ample evidence to prove all four bombs were the work of the same man — Guido Amsel. To believe otherwise would defy all common sense, he said.
Vanderhooft said Amsel tailored his testimony to fit the forensic evidence already provided to court.
"Mr. Amsel is not simply the victim of circumstance," he said. "He sent these bombs.… His explanations don't hold water."
Amsel offered several different explanations for how his DNA came to be on the plastic pouch seized from Mitousis's office, including an allegation he had been framed by his previous lawyer, the Crown and the RCMP.
He also testified he may have left DNA behind while examining court documents connected to his ongoing litigation with Iris at Mitousis' former law office in 2011 or 2012. Amsel suggested DNA from the documents, still in Mitousis' possession years later, may have been transferred to the pouch during the 2015 explosion.
Vanderhooft said a police picture of the explosion scene shows file boxes with their lids still secured.
"We are somehow supposed to accept that his DNA miraculously leapt from inside that box, across the room [and landed on the pouch]," Vanderhooft said.
In another explanation, Amsel suggested he may have touched the pouch while looking at merchandise at a Dollarama store where the pouch may have been purchased.
"That evidence is clearly contrived and convenient in an attempt to make you believe ... that anything coming out of that store would have his DNA on it," Vanderhooft said.
"Do you believe those explanations? The obvious answer is no, and it doesn't raise a reasonable doubt either," Vanderhooft told Lord.
Amsel had a clear motive for the bombings, Vanderhooft said. He believed his wife had stolen millions of dollars from him and that his own lawyer — whose boss was the target of a bomb — had been paid to drop his case.
"He went to the RCMP, he thought [Iris Amsel] was stealing from him and he wanted her in jail," Vanderhooft said. "There is no coincidence Iris Amsel was a targeted victim not once, but twice."
Lord reserved her decision.
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With files from The Canadian Press