An Internet search by an off-duty Mountie helped police bust a man tied to an art heist earlier this year, provincial court heard Monday.
Const. Steven Murphy of Red Deer RCMP testified that on Feb. 16 he was scanning a Red Deer radio news website when he saw a picture and story of the print Busted, which had been stolen almost a week earlier.
Murphy told Crown prosecutor Wayne Silliker he was helping on another officer’s search warrant on Feb. 12 at David Joseph Ellison’s Fairway Avenue residence when he was taken by Busted, created by Las Vegas artist Michael Godard.
Murphy said he didn’t know the print hanging on Ellison’s wall was stolen during the Feb. 12 search for drugs and a weapon.
However, he also remembered seeing Ellison, who has a lengthy property-related record, in the Editions Art Gallery at the Bower Place Shopping Centre on Feb. 9, a day before the print was stolen.
Ironically, Murphy was off duty that day, too.
Murphy obtained a search warrant on Feb. 17 to search Ellison’s residence. To his surprise, Murphy found another Godard print, The Heist, hanging next to Busted. Both were produced in limited editions.
Busted was estimated to retail at about $1,700 in the initial report of the theft from police. There was no value given to The Heist.
Ellison, 31, was convicted of possession of stolen property and failing to appear in court by Judge L. G. Anderson.
Sentencing was adjourned to Nov. 5 to allow for a pre-sentence report.
Murphy said Busted caught his eye on Feb. 12 because it was “flashy and bright.”
Busted shows characters in the shape of olives, surrounded by a police car and officers, as a helicopter shines a light down onto the scene.
The Heist depicts a handful of olives, some drinking a martini or smoking a cigar while the rest are loading bags of loot off an armoured truck.
Court heard Editions didn’t know The Heist was missing until Murphy informed them.
Godard is known as “the rock star of the art world,” an Editions spokesperson said a few days after the theft.
The trial took an unusual twist when defence witness Jason Long, 33, testified he stole both prints but didn’t tell Ellison, who has been a friend for more than 10 years when he sold it to him.
Long said he sold the prints outside a convenience store to Ellison for about $600 because he was divesting himself of all his property to pay for a cocaine addiction.
Long told defence lawyer Rod McGregor he had 64 previous property convictions but had no record since 2001.
However, Silliker conducted a quick search and confronted Long with three convictions for court breaches in 2005 and a theft in 2007.
“I put it to you sir you are a liar and we can’t trust anything you say,” Silliker said.
McGregor argued Ellison should be acquitted because he didn’t have knowledge the prints were stolen.
Silliker argued that Ellison “showed wilful blindness” in buying the prints.
Anderson ruled that Ellison was in possession of the prints and displayed wilful blindness to their origin.
He said he believed part of what Long said but that he sold the prints to the accused.
Long can’t be charged with theft under terms of the Canada Evidence Act.
jwilson@www.reddeeradvocate.com