Gasps, tears, smiles as N.B. Appeal Court quashes Oland murder conviction
FREDERICTON — New Brunswick’s Court of Appeal has overturned Dennis Oland’s conviction for the second-degree murder of his millionaire father, and ordered a new trial.
Oland showed no immediate reaction, but his wife Lisa Oland gasped as she held hands with Dennis’s mother Connie. Both women were in tears.
The appeal court rejected Oland’s claim that the verdict was unreasonable, but found the trial judge did not properly instruct the jury on evidence around the jacket Oland was wearing the day of the murder.
“His instructions on a key piece of the evidentiary puzzle are fundamentally flawed,” said Chief Justice Ernest Drapeau.