'My trial was unfair,' Mark Smich writes; Tim Bosma's killers file appeals
Smich and Millard both face first-degree murder charges in the death of Toronto woman Laura Babcock
Two men found guilty of murder in the death of Tim Bosma are appealing their convictions.
Dellen Millard and Mark Smich, who were convicted last month of first-degree murder in the brutal killing of the Hamilton man, have both filed notices of appeal with Ontario's top court.
"My trial was unfair," Smich, 28, of Oakville, Ont., wrote in his inmate appeal that was filed with the Court of Appeal late last month.
"The trial judge made errors in his charge to the jury and other rulings," his handwritten appeal stated.
Millard, 30, of Toronto, pointed out more than a dozen issues with the trial, among them that the judge should have excluded evidence found on his farm and in various electronic devices because it breached his charter rights.
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Bosma vanished three years ago after taking two strangers for a test drive in a truck he was trying to sell online.
Millard also said in a two-page typed appendix to his appeal notice that the judge erred by allowing texts into evidence about the acquisition of a Walther PPK gun, which the Crown alleged was used to kill Bosma on May 6, 2013.
'Excellent grounds for appeal,' Smich's lawyer says
Millard's lawyer, Ravin Pillay, told the jury in his closing address that Smich pulled a gun in Bosma's truck and accidentally killed the Hamilton man.
Justice Andrew Goodman subsequently told the jury to disregard that theory because there was no basis in evidence for it, which is another issue for Millard in his notice of appeal.
Smich testified it was Millard who shot Bosma with that gun and then burned Bosma in an animal incinerator — dubbed "The Eliminator — on Millard's farm near Waterloo, Ont.
"I think there are excellent grounds for appeal," said Smich's lawyer, Tom Dungey, adding his client will hire an appellate lawyer to handle the case.
Dungey said the inmate appeal satisfies the obligation to file a notice of appeal within 30 days and doesn't require much detail.
"It will likely be many months before a full, professional, notice of appeal is filed with court," he said.
Pillay declined comment.
Smich and Millard both face first-degree murder charges in the death of Toronto woman Laura Babcock, 23, who went missing in July 2012 and whose body has never been found.
Millard is also charged with first-degree murder in the death of his father, Wayne Millard, 71, whose death in November 2012 was initially deemed a suicide.