Richard Oland's missing cell was 'likely' near Rothesay tower
Bobbi-Jean MacKinnon | CBC News | Posted: November 19, 2015 6:36 PM | Last Updated: November 20, 2015
Cellphone network expert testifies at Dennis Oland's 2nd-degree murder trial
A cellphone network expert maintains it's "more likely" Richard Oland's missing iPhone 4 was near the Rothesay cell tower that transmitted the last message his phone received than any other tower.
Joseph Sadoun was cross-examined Thursday by Dennis Oland's defence lawyer Alan Gold about his previous statement to the Crown.
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Sadoun had said the chances of a cellphone in uptown Saint John communicating with a cell tower in Rothesay, which is about a 20-minute drive away were "minimal," because there are at least four closer towers that would provide stronger signals.
The court has heard the last 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., which pinged off the tower in Rothesay.
The location of the Oland's phone and the timing of the call are key factors in the case. The phone was the only item that went missing from the prominent businessman's Saint John office, where his body was discovered on the morning of July 7, 2011.
Dennis Oland, 47, who was the last known person to see his father alive during a meeting at his office the night before, told police he left around 6:30 p.m. and drove home to Rothesay, stopping briefly at Renforth Wharf en route to see if his children were there swimming.
The wharf is located near the Rothesay tower his father's cellphone pinged off.
Oland has pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder and is standing trial before a judge and jury in the Court of Queen's Bench in Saint John.
Gold asked whether the Rothesay tower would be strong enough to send a signal 25 kilometres, more than enough to reach Richard Oland's office on Canterbury Street.
Sadoun said it was possible, if it was flat terrain.
Gold also submitted the boundaries of cell towers are not rigid. The strength of a signal "waxes and wanes" every second and so-called neighbour towers may take over during peak periods when there is a heavy volume of calls or during technical problems, he said.
So a phone that connected with the Rothesay tower could be located in the primary coverage area of that tower, which is depicted in pink in a colour-coded map created by Sadoun, or in any other coloured area representing the so-called neighbour towers, argued Gold.
Sadoun, who helps design cellphone networks, agreed the coverage of towers overlap and said he didn't know what the "digital electronic neighbour list" of the Rothesay tower would have been on July 6, 2011.
But he reiterated that the best tower to transmit the victim's final message would have been the Rothesay one.
Cellphones usually connect with whichever tower can provide the best signal, which as a general rule, is the closest one, according to Sadoun, the director of engineering for the wireless division of Montreal-based Yves R. Hamel and Associates.
Gold also pointed out that cell tower prediction models are based on a cellphone being at a height of 1.5 metres, the equivalent of a person standing at street level holding a phone.
If Oland's cellphone was in his office, which was located on the second-storey of 52 Canterbury St., than the basic assumption of 1.5 metres wouldn't apply, suggested Gold.
Sadoun agreed.
Test calls challenged
Gold noted the software-generated predictions Sadoun provided regarding which towers would respond to tests calls conducted by lead investigator Const. Stephen Davidson were wrong in some cases.
For example, Sadoun's analysis showed the 15 calls made from Renforth Wharf would connect with the Rothesay tower. But they all used a tower on Mount Champlain, near Welsford, instead.
Three of the 41 calls made from the uptown Saint John area also failed to connect with the predicted tower, the courtroom heard.
But none of the 41 went to the tower in Rothesay, according to Sadoun's 21-page report.
And none of the incorrect predictions involved a signal connecting to a phone after bypassing one or two other towers, the report shows.
Gold also criticized the test calls themselves, suggesting the officer should have conducted them during the summer, rather than winter months, to best replicate the conditions of the final calls and texts to Oland's cell.
Sadoun agreed that would have been a good idea.
He also agreed it would have been prudent to have the phone receiving the officer's test calls in Oland's office.
He did not agree, however, that Davidson should have sent texts from the Darlings Island home of Oland's mistress.
He said it doesn't really matter where the sender of a text is located in relation to what tower is accessed by the receiver.
And as to whether a cell connects differently with calls than it does with texts, Sadoun said, "Not particularly, no."
Richard Oland, 69, suffered 45 sharp and blunt force injuries to his head, neck and hands. No weapon was ever found.
Agreed statements of fact time-savers
The Crown and defence entered three agreed statements of fact into evidence on Thursday, including one regarding the cellphone records for Dennis Oland.
Telus Communications was served with a production order by Saint John police on July 15, 2011, to provide the call detail records (CDR) for Oland's Blackberry on July 6-7, 2011, according to the statement by Telus security investigator Don Calpito.
The records include the date and time a call was made or received, the calling and called number, the duration of the call, which calls went to voice mail, as well as outgoing and incoming text messages.
The second agreed statement of fact related to Kirk Sweezey, who was the morgue attendant during Richard Oland's autopsy on July 8, 2011.
Sweezey collected a number of bodily samples under the direction and supervision of the pathologist, including vitreous fluid from the eyes, blood and urine.
There is also an agreed statement of fact about police obtaining a cast-off DNA sample from Richard Oland's brother, Derek Oland, who is the executive chairman of Moosehead Breweries Limited.
It describes how Saint John Police Force constables Jeremy Edwards and Craig Ryan, and Kennebecasis Regional Police Force Const. Mitch Mercer followed Derek Oland on April 5, 2015 from the Saint John Law Courts building to Bourbon Quarter Restaurant on Prince William Street.
The officers watched as Oland ate with his nephew Dennis Oland, Dennis Oland's wife, Lisa Andrik-Oland and another unidentified female, then seized a glass and fork he had been using once they left.
Derek Oland has told CBC News he was never asked by police to provide a DNA sample, but would have done so willingly.
The court has not heard why police wanted the sample.
The three agreed statements of fact means the five witnesses involved no longer need to testify.
As a result, the trial won't have to sit on Friday, as scheduled, Justice John Walsh told the jurors.
The trial will resume on Monday at 9:30 a.m., said Walsh, reminding them to avoid any related media coverage.