Ten things jurors at the Laura Babcock trial did not hear
TORONTO — A jury is deliberating the case of two men accused of killing a Toronto woman and burning her body in an animal incinerator. Dellen Millard and Mark Smich pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder in the presumed death of Laura Babcock, whose body has not been found. Here are 10 things jurors didn’t hear.
TIM BOSMA — Millard and Smich were both convicted of first-degree murder last year in the death of Tim Bosma, an Ancaster, Ont., man who took the pair on a test drive while trying to sell his truck. The jury never heard Bosma’s name, nor did they hear that the accused burned his remains in an animal incinerator also suspected of being used to dispose of Babcock’s body.
WAYNE MILLARD — The jury didn’t know that Millard also faces a first-degree murder charge in the death of his father, Wayne Millard, who died on Nov. 29, 2012 — about five months after Babcock’s presumed death. His death was initially deemed a suicide, but police re-opened the investigation after arresting Dellen Millard for Bosma’s death. The trial for Wayne Millard’s death is scheduled to begin on March 20, 2018.
“THRILL-SEEKING” MOTIVE — The Crown, who alleged Babcock was killed for being the odd woman out in a love triangle with Millard and his girlfriend, wanted to introduce a second motivation for Babcock’s killing — a “thrill seeking” motive that detailed Millard and Smich’s lengthy criminal behaviour leading up to the young woman’s disappearance and after. Prosecutors wanted to bring up alleged incidents over a two-and-a-half year period, dubbed “missions” by Millard, that included stealing plants, trailers, trafficking drugs and smuggling drugs into the country. Justice Michael Code, who presided over the trial, deemed it too prejudicial to the accused and ruled out anything referring to the pair’s “broader criminal conspiracy” that the two discussed at length in text messages.