The defendant, Omar Thomas, was charged with three convenience store robberies and related charges.
Identity was the central issue.
The Crown relied on video surveillance, circumstantial evidence including clothing and DNA, and text messages.
The court applied principles from R. v. Nikolovski regarding identification from video and the cumulative effect of circumstantial evidence.
The court found the defendant guilty of the April 25, 2020 robbery based on strong circumstantial evidence, including DNA on discarded gloves and incriminating text messages.
However, the court found him not guilty of the March 7 and April 8, 2020 robberies due to insufficient evidence to establish identity beyond a reasonable doubt, primarily due to the extent of disguise and lack of sufficiently distinctive corroborating evidence.
