There’s a lack of evidence against a B.C. man accused of possessing cocaine for the purpose of trafficking, his lawyer argued Wednesday.

The trial of 42-year-old Jason McMillan wrapped up yesterday in territorial court with submissions from defence lawyer Jeremy Guild and Crown prosecutor Eric Marcoux.

Two of McMillan’s fingerprints were found on a brick of cocaine picked up at a Porter Creek home on Aug. 30, 2013, court heard throughout the three-day trial this week.

But because the charge against him pinpoints possession to “on or about” Aug. 30, in Whitehorse, time and location are both important, Guild told Judge Karen Ruddy.

The Crown must prove that the cocaine was in McMillan’s possession on that date, or one to three days before, here in the territory, the defence lawyer argued.

Yet the Crown called no evidence to show that McMillan was in the Yukon at the time, Guild said.

None of the RCMP witnesses testified about seeing McMillan in their surveillance, and he wasn’t seen in the Porter Creek home during the pick-up.

According to testimony from expert witness Staff Sgt. Major Doug Spencer, a fingerprints analyst with the RCMP, it’s impossible to date prints – to tell when they were placed on a surface.

So there’s no way to know when McMillan touched the plastic bag and tape the cocaine was packaged in, Guild argued.

The trial heard from Yukon RCMP officers, including Cpl. Lindsay Ellis, who testified that Project Monolith was a large investigation that targeted a supply pipeline of cocaine from B.C.’s Lower Mainland to Whitehorse.

It’s possible the fingerprints could have been deposited in B.C., Guild said. It’s likely that’s where the cocaine was packaged before it was shipped north.

Marcoux, however, said it was important to look at the evidence as a whole.

“Your Honour, this is definitely a circumstantial-evidence case,” he said.

When considering all of the evidence heard, “the only reasonable inference is that Mr. McMillan was in possession of cocaine on or about Aug. 30, 2013, for trafficking.”

Marcoux pointed to testimony from a former drug dealer in the group who became a police agent, giving the RCMP information in exchange for money.

The agent, who is now in the Witness Protection Program and cannot be identified due to a publication ban, testified he had met McMillan once at the Yukon Inn, but he didn’t really know him.

That was roughly a month before the police agent picked up the cocaine from Porter Creek and brought it to an RCMP safe house, he said.

“Mr. McMillan was not seen there that day,” Marcoux conceded, but he said the timing of the meeting at the Yukon Inn was “telling,” though there are few details about the circumstances of the meeting.

“We know there was a kilo of cocaine in town around that time,” Marcoux said. “It shows a connection between Mr. McMillan and (the police agent.)”

Guild disputed this.

“That is just guilt by a bare association, if that,” the B.C.-based lawyer said.

It’s like saying he himself is a drug dealer just because he met the drug dealer-turned-police agent on the witness stand, Guild argued.

“That just holds no water.”

He said the Crown was asking the judge to make too many inferences in order to convict his client.

“I counted 12 inferences,” he said. “Some of those inferences are based on other inferences.”

Guild said there just isn’t enough evidence to convict McMillan.

“In my respectful submission, the absence of that evidence raises a reasonable doubt.”

Ruddy said she will release a written decision first, on Sept. 11, so McMillan will know if he should fly back to Whitehorse to hear the oral decision one week later.

If he is convicted, the Crown will seek his detention at that date, Marcoux said.