Strong circumstantial evidence not enough to convict Sault man of home invasion

A gavel sits on a desk before the a meeting of the House Justice and Human Rights Committee in Ottawa, Wednesday February 13, 2019. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld)

A man from Sault Ste. Marie has been acquitted of a home invasion in Mississauga, despite the fact he resembled the culprit and his vehicle was used as the getaway car.

The judge in the case ruled there was enough uncertainty to create reasonable doubt and dismissed all the charges in a decision released Jan. 25.

The incident dates back to June 2019, when someone entered a townhouse in Mississauga late at night.

The suspect was described as a big man – about 6-foot-1 and weighing 200 pounds – wearing a black mask that covered the lower part of his face.

He entered through the unlocked front door and entered one of the bedrooms, where he was met by a resident of the home. The resident then ran into his parent's bedroom.

As the thief was rummaging through the bedroom, the resident's stepfather came out and held the bedroom door closed, trapping the suspect inside.

"He observed that the intruder was a big guy and had a bag over his shoulder," the court transcript of the case said. "He was also holding a black hatchet."

A short struggle ensued, and the intruder managed to escape down the stairs and fled outside. The stepfather shouted for someone to call police and chased the suspect down the road.

"(The intruder) stopped on the grass, looked back at (the stepfather) and laughed," the transcript said. "He took off again, ran to a gas station and jumped into a car and drove away."

The stepfather managed to get a description of the vehicle and the licence plate number. Missing items from the home included a Gucci side bag, a Ferragamo side bag, two ounces of marijuana and clothes.

Six days after the robbery, police were checking out parking lots of local hotels, including one known for prostitution and other illegal activity. A licence plate in the lot matched the one from the home invasion.

The owner of the vehicle matched the general description of the intruder and he was arrested during a "high-risk takedown" and charged with the home invasion.

In his decision, the judge ruled the suspect certainly resembled the intruder, but that alone wasn't enough for a conviction. It can be used with other evidence to support a conviction, however.

"That evidence was entitled to some weight in relation to the ultimate issue of identity," the judge wrote in his decision.

On the Crown's side was the fact the suspect owned the getaway vehicle, resembled the intruder, was arrested in Mississauga when he lived in the Sault, and had a wrench in his vehicle that resembled a wrench witnesses said the intruder was carrying.

"None of these discrete bodies of evidence was persuasive, but the difficult question in this case was whether combining them together meets the Crown's burden and degree of proof," the judge wrote.

"That degree of proof, of course, is closer to certainty than it is to probability."

In the end, the judge ruled there was too much uncertainty for a conviction. There was no forensic evidence, none of the stolen items were found in the vehicle, and there was no evidence the suspect knew the victims or had any motive to rob them.

"In this case, it was not just the weaknesses in each of the bodies of evidence relied on by the Crown, but there were potentially important areas where evidence was absent," he wrote.

"He is not guilty on both counts."

Read the full transcript here.