Dennis Oland's defence attempts to poke holes in Crown's case

Dennis Oland's defence team began poking holes Thursday in the Crown's theory about his father's murder by painting a different picture of their relationship and raising questions about the timeline of events surrounding his death.

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Gary Miller began his cross-examination of Richard Oland's long-time secretary, Maureen Adamson, who discovered the prominent businessman's bludgeoned body in his uptown Saint John office on the morning of July 7, 2011.

Adamson had testified about seeing the victim and accused alone together the night before, making Dennis Oland, 46, the last known person to see his father alive.

She said he had showed up at his father's office around 5:30 p.m. and the two men were discussing an Oland family tree project they were working on when she left for the day.

But Miller questioned Adamson about her routine, noting she usually left the office every day between 5:30 p.m. and 6 p.m.

He said his client would have been familiar with her routine and if he wanted to see his father alone, he could have visited him later — presumably suggesting that if he was going there to kill him and wanted to avoid being seen and considered a suspect, that's what he would have done.

Miller also showed the jury a surveillance video of Dennis Oland at Cochran's Country Market, located on Hampton Road in Rothesay, which is at least a 15-minute drive away from his father's office on Canterbury Street, according to Google Maps.

RAW: Dennis Oland at Cochran's

9 years ago

Duration 4:14

RAW: Dennis Oland at Cochran'sThe video is time stamped 7:38 p.m. — less than two hours after Adamson had left the two men alone together, and about an hour after Dennis Oland told police he left the office.

In the video, the accused is seen in a change of clothes, talking calmly with his wife, Lisa, and his aunt Jane Toward — Richard Oland's sister.

The Crown has said Richard Oland was killed "in a rage," suffering 46 blows to his body, including 40 sharp or blunt-force injuries to his head and neck.

His investments were worth about $37 million at the time of this death, the courtroom heard.

Dennis Oland, meanwhile, was "on the edge" financially, two months behind in interest payments to his father on a $500,000 loan, with his credit "maxed out," the Crown said.

Adamson had emailed Dennis Oland about his outstanding payments, telling him to send more post-dated cheques and he replied saying he would, but asked her to hold off on cashing the first one.

During cross-examination, Miller pointed out that Adamson and Richard Oland shared the same office email account and he could have seen those emails, but never expressed any concern about the late payments.

Miller introduced a different string of emails for the jury's consideration — correspondence between Dennis Oland and his father, just weeks before his death.

Richard Oland had recently sponsored Dennis Oland's daughter's basketball team on a tournament.

In the exchange, Dennis Oland thanked his father and they both expressed pride in how well the girl had performed.

Richard Oland also wrote his granddaughter a formal letter, congratulating her on the achievement and closing with, "Love Granddad."

Miller also noted that Dennis' son is named Henry, which was his father's middle name.

Cross-examination of Maureen Adamson is expected to continue on Friday morning.

The defence has not outlined its case for the jury yet, but will do so later in the proceedings.

The trial is scheduled to run until Dec. 18.