ST. JOHN'S, N.L. — The case against Justin Wiseman hinges on one issue, both sides agree: identity.
The Crown says there's enough evidence to prove Wiseman was the man who held up a Mount Pearl Marie's Mini Mart in March 2018 while armed with a knife and a hammer, then made a getaway in a stolen truck.
The defence says the evidence is circumstantial, apart from the testimony of the store clerk, and the clerk's memory of the robbery was clouded by media coverage of Wiseman's interaction with police that day.
Wiseman, 27, has pleaded not guilty to charges of robbing the convenience store while armed and disguised, as well as possessing the stolen pickup truck. His trial took place over three days this week at Newfoundland and Labrador Supreme Court in St. John's this week, with lawyers presenting their closing arguments to Justice Robert Stack on Friday.
Wiseman is also charged with offences related to a standoff with police at a home on Jersey Avenue in Mount Pearl later on the same day as the armed robbery. The standoff, which lasted about seven hours, saw Wiseman allegedly barricade himself inside the home with a knife, and ended when police noticed the residence was on fire and rushed in to arrest him. Wiseman has pleaded guilty to arson, and that charge, as well as a charge of possessing a weapon (a knife) for a dangerous purpose, will be dealt with during a hearing in September.
Kimberley Mulrooney testified she was working in the Moores Drive convenience store when a man dressed all in black and wearing a bandanna over his face entered around 8:30 a.m., wielding a knife.
Video footage shows the man jumping over the counter and rummaging through the cigarette cupboard and the till, leaving about a minute and a half later with what was determined to be $417.80 in cash and $1,209.87 worth of tobacco products.
Mulrooney said she had been frightened by the knife, but felt the robber wasn't going to hurt her, since he apologized repeatedly, telling her that he was sorry for his actions but had no other choice because he was getting no help. He called her "sweetie" and told her to relax, she said.
When the robber left in a pickup, Mulrooney wrote the licence plate number down and gave it to police, who determined the truck had been reported stolen.
When police arrived on the scene, Mulrooney gave them a description of the robber, telling the officers he was between 5'6" and 5'9" and had a blue tattoo over his right eyebrow.
Wiseman became a person of interest from that description, RNC officers testified, and they began looking for the stolen pickup, which they located three hours later on Park Avenue and followed to a home on Jersey Avenue. There was a man in the driver's seat and a female on the passenger side, the court heard.
After learning Wiseman was inside the residence and wasn't coming out, police surrounded the home. An RNC officer testified he had been driving toward the street behind Jersey Avenue when he saw a man dressed all in black crouched by a shed in the backyard of the home in question, moving toward the next street. When the man saw the police car, he ran back to the Jersey Avenue house and went in the back door.
During the standoff, Wiseman called the NTV newsroom, looking to do an interview. A story that aired on the suppertime news - while the standoff was in progress - featured a recording of that interview, with Wiseman telling a reporter he would shoot himself and lamenting his life situation.
"I don't like being like this. I'm not this person," Wiseman said in the interview. He has acknowledged to the court that the voice was his.
Mulrooney testified she heard the voice on her TV while busy in another room, and recognized it right away as the same calm voice of the man who had robbed her that morning. When she saw a picture in The Telegram the next morning of Wiseman as he was arrested after the standoff, she recognized the eyebrow tattoo, she said.
Forensic investigators told the court they found a partially burned hammer, a cellphone, a charger cord and other debris in the living room fireplace inside the home after the fire was extinguished, as well as a charred knife. A pack of cigarettes, one of the same brands stolen from the store, was found in the basement.
Prosecutor Kathleen O'Reilly alleged the knife and hammer were the ones used in the armed robbery, the cigarettes were among the tobacco stolen and Wiseman - the only man who entered or left the home after the stolen truck pulled into the driveway - was the robber.
"Our theory is that Mr. Wiseman saw police and tried to leave the home, but the home had already been contained," O'Reilly said. "Our theory is that Mr. Wiseman was trying to destroy evidence."
Though the man in black had been seen running into the home, investigators found no black clothes inside after the standoff, O'Reilly pointed out. Wiseman had appeared at the door during the standoff with less and less clothes on, she said.
"We're not asking the court to convict Mr. Wiseman based on Ms. Mulrooney's identification of his tattoo alone. That would not be identity proven beyond a reasonable doubt. The same with the cigarettes found inside the home, the same with the man in black outside the home. But when we look at the totality of the evidence and everything that we have just listed, do any of the proposed alternatives raise a reasonable doubt? From the Crown's perspective, given this web of factors and evidence linking Mr. Wiseman to this house, and the actions and post-offence conduct, that would be straining on reason and human experience to accept that all of these things put together were merely some string of highly improbable coincidences. That would defy logic and common sense."
Defence lawyer Karen Rehner challenged the reliability of Mulrooney's evidence, arguing she had experienced difficulty recalling certain details.
Mulrooney testified she had been focused on the knife during the robbery, yet couldn't provide clear details about the weapon, Rehner said.
Mulrooney had described the robber as being 5'9" or shorter, and Wiseman is almost six feet tall.
Mulrooney's description of the eyebrow tattoo changed from being solid blue, to black and having gaps in it, Rehner pointed out.
Wiseman has a tattoo over his right eyebrow of the four suits in a deck of playing cards in black ink.
"Her recollection was tainted by images she saw (in the media) before the trial," Rehner argued, noting police had decided not to present Mulrooney with a photo lineup after she told them about having recognized Wiseman as the robber from The Telegram photo and the NTV news clip.
The photo was "highly prejudicial," Rehner said, and the TV piece had included information about Wiseman's prior convictions for a series of armed robberies.
"The thing that stood out to her about the voice (on TV) was that it was calm. The Crown says the voice in the interview was calm, but we don't see that the same way," Rehner said. "It sounded upset, distraught, and there are times in that interview where the voice was raised. Put to Ms. Mulrooney, she was steadfast that the voice was calm."
Justice Stack will deliver his verdict in the case on Sept. 20.
Twitter: @tara_bradbury
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