The prosecutor in the trial of five men accused of kidnapping the son of a wealthy Vancouver businessman is dismissing a defence suggestion the victim or his family played some part in the abduction.
Richard Cairns said Thursday there's nothing sinister in the fact that Robert McMynn rented a small car about a month before kidnappers got a similar car from the same rental agency and used it to snatch his son Graham in April 2006.
Defence lawyer Lyndsey Smith is asking B.C. Supreme Court Justice Arne Silverman to order the Crown to turn over of all car rental contracts involving the McMynns.
It was part of a larger evidence-disclosure application filed this week covering everything from police notes, phone logs and records to information about police investigation techniques involving media coverage of the kidnapping.
Late Thursday, Silverman ruled that the Crown should turn over almost all the requested material.
Some notes discussed "gossip and scandalous rumours'' with nothing to support them the reputations of third parties, he said.
Smith, who represents Jose Hernandez, said police notes show Robert McMynn rented a Toyota Echo on March 6, 2006, from Best Price Car and Truck Rental.
The Crown alleges that when Graham McMynn was taken from his car while driving to university on April 4, 2006, he was bundled into a Honda Civic similar in size and colour to the Echo, with a licence plate number that differed by only one digit.
That car was later found abandoned and McMynn has testified he was transferred to a minivan for the drive to the first of three hideouts where he was held.
Smith said earlier that police notes indicate the McMynns may have rented more than one car from Best Price.
She also pointed to a break-in at Best Price during the kidnapping where nothing but rental contracts was taken.
And she noted that he when police rescued him, Graham McMynn was neither blindfolded nor tied up, as he testified he had been for most of his captivity.
Cairns said Smith's theory appears to be that McMynn was in on his own kidnapping and that the similarity of the two rented cars could lead to confusion.
The fact their licence plates were one digit apart only means the rental company registered them at the same time, he said.
Smith's inference that the break-in was an attempt to cover up a McMynn connection to the kidnapping is also off base, Cairns said. It's more likely the accused did the burglary to get rid of evidence connecting them to their car rentals, where they used another man's name and credit card.
The kidnap victim was left unbound not because he was in on the plot but because of "the passivity he had displayed and the incredible incompetence of the accused,'' Cairns said.
Along with Hernandez, Anh The Nguyen, Van Van Vu, Joshua Ponicappo and Sam Taun Vu _ all between 19 and 22 years old when they were arrested _ are being tried on one count each of kidnapping and unlawful confinement.
McMynn has testified the kidnappers threatened him, his family and his girlfriend, at one point putting a loaded gun to his head and at another saying they were going to chop off a hand.
Cairns criticized the accusatory manner Smith used to argue for disclosure, inferring the Crown was deliberately withholding evidence to frustrate the defence.
Smith had attacked the Crown's initial response to her requests, which asked her to explain the relevance of the information she wanted.
The law obliges the defence to demonstrate the relevance of what they're asking for, he said.
The Crown has provided all statements in the investigation, "relevant or irrelevant,'' Cairns said.
"We have no interest in holding anything back.''
The trial is adjourned until Monday, when McMynn will return to the witness stand for cross-examination.
