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Butler’s bank cards and cellphone were found in the cab. Wolverine also had a WestJet card in Butler’s name in his pocket, and his shoe matched one of the sets of footprints that were tracked.

On Wednesday, Judge Barry Morgan rehashed the testimony from the men’s provincial court trial before finding them guilty of breaking and entering to commit assault and robbery.

Before giving his decision, Morgan struck down three alleged charter breaches filed by Wolverine’s lawyer, Carl Swenson.

Swenson argued police didn’t know the footprints from the home invasion had been tracked to 2006 Cairns Avenue when they stopped the cab, and therefore did not have reasonable grounds to detain his client. Morgan determined the stop was not “arbitrary” because at the time, police knew about the cab call following the offence and that two men were suspected in the home invasion. The only thing they didn’t know was that the track had connected the two locations.

The subsequent search was conducted for safety reasons, Morgan said. Although he concluded that seizing Butler’s card from Wolverine’s pocket went beyond a pat-down for protection purposes, Morgan ultimately allowed the item into evidence. He said the card itself did not form the basis of the charges because police already had other evidence — bank cards and a cellphone — linking the men to the home invasion.

Finally, Morgan found that when police explained his charter rights to Wolverine, who was intoxicated, Wolverine was unco-operative but understood the information.

Dumais was, at the least, a party to the offences; he was in the back seat of the cab, where many of the victim’s belongings were found, Morgan said when giving his decision.

Both men were found not guilty of fraud. Sentencing is tentatively set for August after the men’s lawyers requested pre-sentence reports to canvass Gladue factors.

bmcadam@postmedia.com

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