A man charged in connection with a string of Olds break-ins last year was acquitted of one charge, and had two others against him withdrawn by the Crown.
A man charged in connection with a string of Olds break-ins last year was acquitted of one charge, and had two others against him withdrawn by the Crown.
Justice Judith Shriar acquitted Kevin Leischner on April 10 in Didsbury court of possessing property under $5,000 in value – a flat-deck trailer – obtained by the commission of an offence.
Leischner, 42, faced two other charges: altering or removing a vehicle identification number (VIN) and concealing property for a fraudulent purpose. The Crown withdrew both.
Noticeably relieved, Leischner buried his face in his hands and exhaled deeply outside the courtroom after the verdict.
The charges stemmed from an alleged incident on Oct. 3 and the court first heard the following agreed-upon facts from Crown prosecutor, Britta Kristensen.
On Sept. 9, a break and enter was reported at the Home Hardware in Olds. From the garden area, a flat-deck trailer went missing.
By Oct. 3, Leischner was pulling that trailer with a truck. An expired licence plate led to a traffic stop. Olds police could not find documents that supported Leischner’s ownership of the trailer. They further found that the VIN decal had been torn off and painted over.
Police seized the trailer, believing it to be stolen and identified it as the one that went missing after the reported break and enter.
After these facts were shared, Leischner took the stand to testify.
The day before the alleged incident, a friend who owns an auto body shop asked him for help to transport his broken-down car from Red Deer back to Olds, Leischner said.
As a heavy-duty mechanic, Leischner had done work for the man’s shop in the past, he said.
According to Leischner, on Oct. 3, the man said he located a trailer to move his car. Leischner then reportedly drove his father’s truck to a trailer park in Olds along with the man to pick it up.
Leischner said he remained in the truck as the trailer was hitched to it.
After he and the man went to Red Deer separately, Leischner loaded the car onto the trailer and returned to Olds, he said.
Along the way, by Olds College, Leischner said he noticed a police car following him. The lights came on just as he approached the man’s auto shop. Police told him they believed the trailer to be stolen.
The trailer was then seized, he said.
Leischner’s girlfriend and the man corroborated his testimony, both being called as witnesses by defence lawyer Roy Shellnutt.
In her closing arguments, Kristensen said Leischner was willfully blind and should have taken more steps to ensure that the trailer was not stolen.
Leischner had told the court he did not check the trailer for ownership documents because he did not believe it was necessary.
Shellnutt argued the events of Oct. 3 were not unusual and out of the norm for rural Alberta.
The owner of the auto body shop needed a trailer and had a lot of customers so he used the network to find one, Shellnutt said.
If Leischner thought the trailer was stolen, he would have checked, he continued.
"It’s not unusual that people borrow things," Shellnutt said.
Shriar said the evidence was hardly conclusive to warrant a conviction.
She continued to say she was not convinced that the use of the trailer appeared suspicious and doubted Leischner knew it was stolen.
Leischner was also arrested Oct. 28 with Jason Furlong, who was convicted of a number of property crimes related to a string of thefts and break-ins in Olds and the surrounding area.
His court date to answer to these charges is May 7, where he faces charges of possessing property obtained through an offence, breaking and entering, possessing break-in tools, two counts of theft over $5,000, theft under $5,000 and resisting arrest.
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