Suspect has no standing to challenge search
Jesse Michael Joe, 41, of Fredericton, sought to exclude evidence in robbery case because wrong address was on warrant, but judge ruled he had no interest in property
Evidence seized under a flawed search warrant will still be admitted at a Fredericton man’s robbery trial because he didn’t have standing to challenge it, a judge ruled Monday.
Jesse Michael Joe, 41, of Angelview Court in Fredericton, faces Dec. 2 charges of assaulting Daniel Gallant with a weapon (a two-by-four), pointing a firearm at Gallant, threatening to harm him, robbing him of jewelry while armed with weapons, and robbing him of those items while armed with a prohibited firearm, namely a 22-calibre rifle.
The charges all arise from a violent incident at two mobile homes in the Hanwell Trailer Park: 42 Elmdale Cres. and 27 Leafwood Cres.
However, at the outset of Joe’s trial earlier this month, the defence sought to exclude evidence seized at the former address. The reason: it was listed on the search warrant as 42 Elmwood Cres.
Court heard RCMP officers executed the search at 42 Elmdale, the correct address, but that it had been listed on the warrant in error as Elmwood.
But before Joe could challenge the search as being invalid due to that typo on the warrant, he first had to demonstrate he qualified as a resident, even if was part-time.
Court heard the information-to-obtain (ITO) document - which listed the address correctly - used to secure the search warrant referred to Joe as a suspect and noted he had an association with the Elmdale address, in that one of the residents was a sometime girlfriend of his.
RCMP Const. Andrey Bouchard Kirouac testified Aug. 4 that Joe told a Mountie who questioned him after his arrest that he’d just moved out of the Elmdale Crescent mobile home before the events of Dec. 2 and had moved in with another girlfriend at an Angelview Court apartment.
Furthermore, court heard that girlfriend testified at his bail hearing in December that Joe lived with her at that Angelview Court address, and it was listed as his place of residence on his release order.
The case was back before Fredericton provincial court Judge Lucie Mathurin for a decision on the defence’s application.
The judge had noted previously the first step in the Charter challenge was for the defence to show Joe had standing to raise the challenge in the first place.
But Mathurin ruled Monday that Joe wasn’t a resident of the Elmdale Crescent residence and therefore didn’t have standing to challenge a search executed at that location.
That made the erroneous address on the face of the warrant a moot point, she said.
The judge set the case over to Dec. 6 for trial continuation, and she remanded Joe again until that time.
Also charged as a result of the same Dec. 2 events is Blake R. Holt, 23 of Forest Hill Road in Fredericton.
His charges include discharging a firearm at Gallant and at Vaillancourt with intent to wound, maim, disfigure or endanger the complainants’ lives, robbing Gallant of jewelry and keys, and masking his face during an offence.
Holt’s additional charges include fleeing from police in Harvey in a vehicle, stealing gas from Sun’s Convenience in Beaver Dam, driving dangerously, possessing a stolen 2012 Honda Civic, possessing of a prohibited weapon (a 22-calibre rifle) without a licence, possessing the gun with readily accessible ammo capable of being discharged, occupying a car in which he knew there was a prohibited firearm and breaching a release order barring him from driving.
He opted earlier this year to be tried before a judge and jury in the Court of King’s Bench.
The events at the Hanwell Trailer Park on the morning of Dec. 2 prompted police to issue an Alert Ready message, advising the public that two suspects had fled the scene of a shooting in the mobile-home community in a blue 2012 Honda Civic.
It noted they were believed to be armed and dangerous.
A news release also indicated two victims at a Hanwell sustained non-life-threatening injuries and were taken to hospital for treatment.
Don MacPherson can be contacted at ftonindependent@gmail.com.