DNA extracted from Dennis Oland's bloodstained jacket matches slain father's

DNA extracted from three of the bloodstains found on the brown sports jacket Dennis Oland wore when he visited his father on the night he was killed matched his father's profile, a DNA expert from the RCMP forensic lab confirmed.

The estimated probability of selecting an unrelated individual at random from the Canadian Caucasian population with the same DNA profile is one in 510 billion, according to Joy Kearsey.

By comparison, the estimated world population is only between seven and eight billion, she said.

The quantity of human DNA obtained from the fourth confirmed bloodstain on Oland's Hugo Boss jacket didn't meet the RCMP's minimum requirement for processing, Kearsey found.  A minimum of 0.246 nanograms of DNA, a billionth of a gram, is required for analysis.  

Oland, 51, is being retried for second-degree murder in the bludgeoning death of his father Richard Oland more than seven years ago.

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A jury found him guilty in 2015, but the New Brunswick Court of Appeal overturned his conviction in 2016, citing an error in the trial judge's instructions to the jury. He is being retried by judge alone in Saint John's Court of Queen's Bench.

On Tuesday, the court watched some of Kearsey's videotaped testimony from Oland's first trial. The Crown and defence agreed to play the video rather than recalling her as a witness.

The balance of Kearsey's testimony will be heard on Thursday.

The retrial is scheduled to resume Wednesday at 9:30 a.m. with an unusual application by Oland's defence lawyers to have hearsay evidence about the unsuccessful search for his dead father's missing cellphone declared as fact.

Crown prosecutor Jill Knee said the court will also hear from another witness in the afternoon. She did not name the witness, but it's expected to be John Ainsworth, one of two men who heard thumping noises coming from the victim's second-floor office on July 6, 2011, the night he was killed.

Oland is the last person known to have seen his father alive when he visited him at his office at 52 Canterbury St. that night, between about 5:35 p.m. and 6:30 p.m.

The body of the 69-year-old multimillionaire was found face down in his blood-spattered investment firm office the next morning with 45 injuries to his head, neck and hands.

Oland told police he was wearing a navy blazer that night, but security video and witness testimony showed he was wearing a brown sports jacket.

The jacket was dry cleaned the morning after Saint John police told Oland he was a suspect in his father's homicide. It was seized from his bedroom closet a week later, with the dry-cleaning tag still attached to the collar.

Last week, the court heard it had four small bloodstains on it — two on the right sleeve, one on the upper left chest and one on the back, in the middle, near the hem. All four were three millimetres or less in size.

The defence contends Oland made an honest mistake when he told police he was wearing a navy blazer, that the bloodstains were the result of innocent transfer and that the jacket was dry cleaned along with several other items because he needed clean clothes for his father's visitation and funeral.

Kearsey, who worked at the RCMP lab in Halifax, analyzed several samples from the jacket and numerous other exhibits in the Oland case, preparing 11 reports totalling 1,400 pages.

She did not get into the details of her findings during the portion of her testimony played on Tuesday. Instead, the court heard her Power Point presentations on the identification of blood and the analysis of DNA — the "blueprint for life."

No two people have identical DNA, except for identical twins, she said.

In 2015 Kearsey testified she found single-source DNA profiles within three of the jacket bloodstains that matched the known sample of the victim in all nine areas used for comparison.

She could not say how the blood got on the jacket, or how long it had been there, but she did say the DNA extracted from the bloodstained areas "likely" came from the blood, as opposed to another source, such as saliva, perspiration or tears.

The fourth bloodstain that didn't have enough DNA for comparison by the RCMP lab was the lower one of the two found on the right sleeve, said Kearsey.

Twelve other stained areas — eight from inside the right cuff, two from inside the left cuff and two from the lining of the back — were also sampled and analyzed.

Of those, two from the right cuff had a mixed DNA profile, with the major component matching the victim's profile with a certainty of one in 180 million, while one from the left cuff had a mixed DNA profile, with the minor component matching the victim's profile with a probability of one in 40.

With the other nine samples, either no meaningful DNA comparison could be made, there wasn't enough DNA for processing or no human DNA was detected.

False negatives, false positives

Those 12 additional stained areas either came back negative for blood or no confirmatory blood test was performed, said Kearsey.

​The two tests the RCMP labs use to detect blood — Hemastix and hemochromogen — can both produce false negative results if "environmental insults" have degraded the hemoglobin, said Kearsey. Washing an item, for example, or warm and moist environments can create false negatives, she said.

So if a stain tests negative for blood, that doesn't necessarily mean it wasn't blood.

Hemastix is a screening test that is very sensitive but not specific for blood. Several other substances can give a false positive result for blood, including certain metals, suede, leather, dirt and mould. A positive Hemastix result indicates only that blood may be present and further testing is required.

Hemochromogen is a confirmatory test. It is less sensitive than Hemastix, but is specific for blood and has no known false positives, said Kearsey.

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The court has heard forensic testing of the shirt, pants and shoes police believe Oland was wearing when he visited his father did not detect any blood.

Tests on the red reusable grocery bag he reportedly had with him that night, the Blackberry he used after he left the office, and the car he drove home in also came back negative for blood.

The Crown expects to wrap up its case by the end of the week, after which the defence will begin presenting its evidence.