The lawyers for a man accused of sending letter bombs have begun cross-examining a Winnipeg police detective who prepared the information to obtain a DNA warrant in the investigation.
The pre-trial cross-examination granted by provincial court Judge Tracey Lord allows Guido Amsel's lawyers to ask questions about an August 2015 RCMP lab report which contained results of a swab of Amsel's hands.
Court was told earlier this week that a preliminary test found traces of an explosive substance but needed to be verified with a second report.
Amsel's lawyers have taken issue with the exclusion of the results of the second test from the information to obtain, which came back negative.
On Wednesday, Amsel's lawyer Saheel Zaman asked Det. Ravi Misir if he knew the first test was presumptive and why he didn't include that detail in the information to obtain the warrant.
Misir told court he was aware of the presumptive nature of the test and was aware it needed lab confirmation, but that it's not his practice to label tests as presumptive.
"I refer to them as the kind of test they are," Misir told court, adding the report was entered into the Winnipeg police computer system on Aug. 28, 2015, and that he completed the information to obtain the warrant two days earlier.
The Crown objected multiple times during the cross-examination, taking issue with some of the questions being asked of Misir.
"We're talking about his knowledge of the report and the questions should be confined to that," said Crown attorney Chris Vanderhooft.
Amsel's defence lawyers are challenging the legality of the blood sample taken from their client.
Amsel is facing five counts of attempted murder and multiple explosives-related charges after letter bombs were sent to two Winnipeg lawyers and his ex-wife in July 2015.
He has pleaded not guilty to all charges. The trial is expected to get underway next month.
(CTV Winnipeg)
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