'Minimal' chance Richard Oland's missing cell was in Saint John, jury told

It's highly unlikely Richard Oland's missing iPhone 4 was still in his Saint John office when it received its last message on the night police believe he was killed, the jury at Dennis Oland's second-degree murder trial heard on Wednesday.

Joseph Sadoun, the director of engineering for the wireless division of Yves R. Hamel and Associates in Montreal, testified that cellphones usually connect with whichever cell tower will provide the best quality signal.

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As a general rule, that would be whichever cell tower is closest, said Sadoun, who helps design cellphone networks and was declared an expert by the court in how cellphone networks operate.

On Tuesday, the court heard that the final communication received by Richard Oland's cellphone was a text message from his mistress, Diana Sedlacek, on July 6, 2011, at 6:44 p.m.

It was transmitted by a cell tower in Rothesay, which is about a 20-minute drive away from his Saint John office.

Crown prosecutor Derek Weaver asked Sadoun what the chances were that a phone located in the city's uptown would communicate with a tower in Rothesay. "Minimal," replied Sadoun.

He listed four other towers in the Saint John area that would have provided better service.

Oland's iPhone was the only item that went missing from his investment firm office, where his bludgeoned body was discovered lying face down in a pool of blood on July 7, 2011.

The 69-year-old prominent businessman, whose investments were worth about $36 million, had suffered 45 sharp and blunt force injuries to his head, neck and hands.

Dennis Oland, 47, who was the last known person to see his father alive during a meeting at his Canterbury Street office the night before, has pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder in his death.

The accused told police he left the office around 6:30 p.m. — although there is a time stamped security video of him walking across the street at 6:12 p.m.

Oland said he drove home to Rothesay, stopping briefly at Renforth Wharf on his way to see if his children were there swimming.

The wharf is located near the Rothesay tower his father's cellphone pinged off.

Two witnesses have described seeing Oland stopping near the wharf to pick something up off the ground, walking to the end of the wharf, sitting down, putting the item he had picked up in a reusable grocery bag he was carrying and then walking briskly back to his car and driving away.

Search for iPhone produced 'roaming error'

Earlier Wednesday, the Court of Queen's Bench heard that Rogers Communications officials attempted to help Saint John police in locating Richard Oland's missing cellphone on July 9, 2011, but received a "roaming error" message.

That could mean one of three things, according to an agreed statement submitted into evidence by the Crown and defence:

• The phone is registered on a foreign network with which Rogers doesn't have a roaming agreement.
• Rogers has no indication where on the network to reach out to in order to locate the device because records of its location have been purged due to a period of inactivity, with no calls, texts or data access.
• The location can't be obtained for "some unspecified reason."

Sylvie Gill, an investigator with Rogers, told the court the company has a law enforcement support unit that routinely assists police to locate cellphones in emergencies, such as missing person cases.

They can use a program to "ping" a cellphone to get a geographic location in real time, she said.

On July 9, 2011, one of her colleagues received such a request regarding Richard Oland's cellphone from Sgt. David Brooker, who was the head of the Saint John Police Force's major crime unit at the time.

But the attempt failed, coming back with a "roaming error" message, said Gill.

There are two other possible fail codes: absent subscriber and unrecognized subscriber, she said.

An agreed definition of "absent subscriber" was also submitted into evidence by the Crown and defence. It "could mean" the cellphone is off, out of the coverage area or unregistered, the agreement states.

If a cellphone can't be located, Rogers can also look at the subscriber's "call detail records" to determine the last usage and the cell tower used, said Gill.

Oland's records show Sedlacek tried to reach him several more times after 6:44 p.m. on July 6, but his phone had stopped receiving calls and texts.

Defence lawyer Alan Gold asked whether the network continues to try to deliver messages for three days. Gill confirmed that is true.

Gold suggested the undelivered messages sent to Oland on July 6 to 7 could have been delivered on July 9 to 10. Gill agreed it was possible, but added that police only requested his records for July 6 to 7.