The second week of Douglas Garland's murder trial concluded around 4:00pm on January 26. As the court will not sit on Friday, they dismissed for the weekend.

Thursday's session began with the cross-examination of Cst. Ian Oxton, who testified much of Tuesday and all of Wednesday. During the cross-examination, Oxton confirmed that none of Garland's DNA was found in the home of victims Alvin and Kathy Liknes.

Kimberly Warren, a forensic hardware engineer and civilian member with the RCMP, testified next via CCTV from Ottawa. Warren specializes in broken and malfunctioning electronics, and testified as an expert witness about a burnt circuit board found at Garland's farm. According to Warren, the circuit board looked like it belonged to a Toyota key fob used for the same vehicle owned by the victims.

Next, Garland's neighbour Brian Kalmbach took the stand. Kalmbach lives south of Garland's property, and noticed a light in the Garland's greenhouse early in the morning of July 2, 2014. Later that day, Kalmbach noticed a fire in the burn barrel area of the Garland's farm, with what he described as more smoke than normal. Under cross examination, Kalmbach said he couldn't know if the light had never been turned on in the early morning before, and that nothing else that day was unusual.

Sgt. Sarah Robison with the Calgary Police Service's forensic unit also testified. She assisted with the processing of Garland's truck.

In the afternoon, Cst. Kyle Lees testified. Lees was part of the tactical operations team with the RCMP in 2014 that searched Garland's property.

The day concluded with testimony from Cst. Quentin Blindenbach, who oversees the search management program for CPS. Cst. Blindenbach was a senior search manager in 2014.

Garland's trial will resume on January 30 at 10:00am.

 

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