Dennis Oland murder trial hears from computer forensics expert

All human activity on Richard Oland'sofficecomputers stopped just minutes after his son stopped by to visit him, anexpert in the forensic analysis of computers and other electronic devices testified on Monday.

The prominent businessman's bludgeoned body was discovered face down in a pool of blood the following morning.

Dennis Oland, 46, who is the last known person to see his father alive, has pleaded not guilty to second degree murder in his father's 2011 death.

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PaymanHakimian, who is with theRCMP'stechnological crimes unit in Fredericton, seized andanalyzed12 items from RichardOland'sSaint John office, in response to a request for assistance from the Saint John Police Force, the murder trial heard.

The items included several computers,digital cameras, an external hard drive and an iPad.

Missing iPhone was backed up

Hakimiandiscovered Richard Oland's iPhone the only item that was missing from his investment firm office and was never recovered had been backed up on his main computeron July 6 at 4:41 p.m. about an hour before his son paid him a visit.

No information about the content of that iPhone or the backup was revealed in court on Monday.

Hakimian also found that Oland'smaincomputerhad two hard drives inside it, but only one of them was connected, which meant whatever information was on that hard drive was not accessible to the user, he said, without disclosing the content.

All of the computers were still on when Hakimian arrived at the crime scene at 52 Canterbury Streeton July 7, 2011, at 6:55 p.m. about 10 hours after Oland's body was found.

One of the computers had Oland's email program open. The email messagedisplayed on the screen had the subject line: Vela Veloce invoice attached, referring to Oland'syacht.

It was sent by Sue Costa, of New England Boatworks in Portsmouth onJune 15,and was in a filelabelled 2011 race programs.

It's unclear if, or how, this is relevant to the case.

Draft email in progress

There was a draft email on Oland'siPad, which was timestamped2:31 p.m.,but no information about the content of the emailor who it was addressed to was revealed.

The last human activity on most of the other computers, including three monitors that were displaying a stock charting program called eSignal, was at 5:39 p.m., said Hakimian.

Richard Oland's secretary previously testified that Dennis Oland came to the office around 5:30 p.m. and she left for the day afew minutes later, leaving the father and son alone together.

But defence lawyer Alan Gold forced Hakimian to acknowledge that some activity, such asreading some websites and closing some browsers, don't leave forensic traces, meaning Richard Oland could have been on his computerafter his sonleft,with no way for police to know.

Even if 5:39 p.m. wasthe last human activity, Gold arguedthere was no way to know if it was unusual or significant because Hakimian did not check the computeractivity times for any other days.

Gold also challenged the Crown's theory that Richard Oland was upset about his son's"monetary affairs," saying that Hakimian didn't find"a bit or byte" of information to support that on the office computers.

But Hakimian saidhe did not go through all of the data, he only extracted the informationand handed it over to Saint John police officers.

40 head and neck injuries

Richard Oland suffered 40 sharp and blunt force injuries to his head and neck, as well as six defensive wounds to his hands, according to the Crown.

Rigor mortis had already set in and the blood around him was hardening when his body was discovered shortly before 9 a.m. on July 7police officers and paramedics testified last week.

Hakimian said Saint John Police Force Sgt. Mark Smith, of the forensic identification unit, was still processing the bloody scene when he arrived that night and he had to wait about two hours before starting his work.

He wore protective booties in the office, he said.

The trial, now in its third week, resumes on Tuesday when Hakimian is expected to continue his testimony.

The trialis scheduled to run until Dec. 18.