Lawyers for both Crown and defence told a B.C. Supreme Court jury to consider carefully the evidence they heard during the trial of a man charged with sexually assaulting and robbing two University of Victoria international students on Jan. 27, 2016.
In closing submissions Friday, defence lawyer Ryan Drury told the seven-woman, five-man jury they must acquit David Robert Hope because another man accepted responsibility for the crime.
In what was clearly a surprise twist in the case, Matsqui inmate Jean Jacques Nadeau testified Tuesday and Wednesday that he had ordered the young women to let him into their Church Street apartment. When they did, he ordered them into the bedroom, told them to undress and sexually touched one young woman.
It creeped him out, Nadeau said, so he stopped and focused on getting money from the students, taking money from a change jar and accompanying them to two banks, where they withdrew money.
Drury told the jury Nadeau could be the man on a surveillance video circulated by Saanich police immediately after the crime.
“You can’t tell if the man is bald or has a small amount of hair,” Drury said.
“The video evidence can’t contradict Mr. Nadeau’s testimony.”
More important, why would someone want to confess to the crime, Drury asked. What would his motive be?
Nadeau has a profile. He is a sexual offender, Drury said. Nadeau testified that he believes he would not be prosecuted for this crime and he doesn’t want Hope to go to prison for something he didn’t do.
Nadeau’s confession raises a reasonable doubt that Hope is guilty of these crimes, Drury said.
During the trial, the jury learned about Nadeau’s lengthy and serious criminal record. They heard he was sentenced last year to five years in prison for a violent sexual assault on a stranger in Esquimalt’s Highrock Park.
The first thing members of the jury probably noticed about Hope was his massive neck tattoo, Drury said.
Hope, who sat through the trial wearing a pink shirt with reading glasses perched on his bald head, has a tattoo of a skull on his Adam’s apple and tattooed wings extending up to his jaw.
Neither woman told police their assailant had a tattoo. They both testified the suspect’s neck was bare and uncovered.
“Could you spend 40 minutes in his presence and not see that tattoo?” Drury asked.
The Crown’s case is circumstantial, Drury said. There’s no direct evidence linking Hope to the crime.
“One student testified that: ‘He looks like the guy.’… But that’s not enough,” Drury said.
It’s admitted that Hope’s DNA was found on the exterior patio door, but the DNA expert said it could have been there for years.
Police didn’t take a DNA sample from the woman who was sexually touched.
“The DNA sample doesn’t prove he was inside the apartment or even there,” Drury said.
Prosecutor Patrick Weir told the jury to reject Nadeau’s evidence. “And I should be using airquotes around ‘evidence,’ ” Weir said.
“Once you consider all the evidence, the only reasonable inference is that Mr. Hope committed these offences.”
He outlined the Crown’s theory that some time after 4 p.m. on Jan. 27, 2016, Hope drove his mother’s car from Duncan to Victoria. He went to Shelbourne Street and Cedar Hill Cross Road and spied the students arriving home after dinner. Hope went around the back and saw the light come on.
“He knew they were alone. He took a chance and ordered one of them to open the door. What was he looking for? Money? Sex? We don’t know. But, likely very much to his surprise, one of them came over and unlocked the door.”
He started to engage them in sexual activity, then stopped. He took them to the bank, got their money, threw away their cellphone and bolted. He returned to his car and immediately drove back to Duncan.
“It was a perfect crime — almost,” Weir said.
Hope was caught on surveillance video walking into the building, pulling up his hoodie. He left DNA on the back door, even though he was wearing gloves. His web searches for jobs on southern Vancouver Island quickly turned to news footage of the crime. He got a plane ticket and flew to Saskatoon.
“Why did he do it? We can’t answer those questions. The only one who can give those answers is Mr. Hope.”
Nadeau had nothing to lose by coming to court and confessing to the crime.
“He has a long-standing, unrelenting contempt for the laws of Canada. … You should trust him as far as you could throw him, which wouldn’t be very far. He lied under oath. He was prepared to mislead you.”
Weir noted that Nadeau was great at recalling some details of the crime, but couldn’t remember some details that would have been completely obvious. “Every time he couldn’t remember something, he said he was messed up on GHB and cocaine.”
Cellphone records show Hope was in Duncan at 4 p.m. that day.
At 7:20 p.m. — the exact time of the offence — Hope received a text message from his mother. The text connected with a cellphone tower on Mount Tolmie, extremely close to the students’ Church Street apartment, Weir said.
A man matching his description is captured on video at the apartment. Hope’s DNA is found on the back door.
“That DNA did not magically appear on the door,” Weir said.
The man on the video has a hoodie zipped up to his neck and he’s looking down.
“If you have a giant neck tattoo, that’s going to be harder to see.”
By 9 p.m., cellphone records indicate Hope had returned to Duncan.
On the morning of Jan. 28, Hope used his cellphone to look for jobs. But at 11:25 a.m., he started searching Greater Victoria Crime Stoppers, Most Wanted and breaking news sites.
On Jan. 30, he flew to Saskatoon, even though his old boss couldn’t promise him a job, Weir said.
“He changes his whole life very quickly, but he’s still interested in Crime Stoppers in Victoria and Saanich,” said Weir, who asked the jury to find Hope guilty of the offences.
