The testimony of a key Crown witness in Travis Vader's murder trial was postponed Wednesday morning.
“Bandana Dave” Olson, who is under RCMP protection, is now scheduled to testify first thing Thursday morning after Crown prosecutors consented to the change.
Prosecutor Jim Stewart initially said the Crown would prefer to go ahead with Olson’s testimony, due to the significant effort and expense for RCMP to bring Olson into Edmonton.
Defence lawyer Brian Beresh explained he was not prepared to proceed without copies of transcripts he had requested, which he had expected to be delivered by April 1, adding that “inquiries are being made” into the matter.
Justice Denny Thomas asked him if he was seeking transcripts from the current proceedings, and Beresh said no. He did not clarify what transcripts he was looking for, but emphasized the transcripts were relevant to his cross-examination of Olson.
“Inquiries are being made,” Beresh said.
He added he would be prepared to complete his cross-examination one way or the other Thursday, but wouldn't yield on this issue in the meantime.
“The defence won't be pressed,” he said.
Vader is accused of murdering St. Albert couple Lyle and Marie McCann on July 3, 2010. They were en route to British Columbia, but never arrived and were reported missing.
Instead of Olson, on Wednesday morning court heard from Linda Rhodenizer, a search technologist at the RCMP’s forensic laboratory in Edmonton about specific exhibits she had handled and collected samples from for analysis, including Lyle McCann’s Boag’s Draught baseball hat and several cans of food found in the McCanns’ SUV, and some clothing items found at a camp site the Crown says Vader occupied while he was on the run from police.
Like previous witnesses who have testified about DNA evidence, she told court about the process through which she collected samples and how it was all documented.
And as with previous DNA witnesses, Beresh raised questions about how the process took place, and how reliable the results might be, for example asking about possible errors with presumptive testing for blood.
With Rhodenizer in particular, he asked her about whether blood was found on the inside of the baseball cap – an issue he raised with other witnesses, suggesting doubt as to where and how the blood got onto the hat – and Rhodenizer testified she observed blood on both the inside and outside of the hat.
“So it dripped through?” Beresh asked, but Rhodenizer said she could not comment one way or the other.
Evidence questioned
Tuesday afternoon’s testimony included Beresh finishing his cross-examination of RCMP S/Sgt. Chad Fournier, who had acted as liaison between investigators and the DNA lab, tracking which exhibits were sent where and when. Beresh raised the prospect that apparent errors in the record-keeping could call into question the value of any of the DNA evidence.
A review of the exhibits after all had been analyzed revealed there were seven that could not be found.
“We did a full review of the McCann exhibits, and they (the seven) were not accounted for,” he said. “I don’t know where they are.”
Stewart addressed the issue in redirected questioning, asking if it was fair to say none of the evidence could be relied upon as a result.
“That’s not a fair comment,” Fournier replied.
Following Fournier’s evidence, Cpl. Chadwick Benko took the stand to give continuity evidence about when he saw certain scenes and exhibits, how that was documented, and what fingerprints he was involved with taking.
That testimony was expected to continue throughout Wednesday afternoon, with Olson scheduled to take the stand first thing Thursday morning.
