'Depravity and evil': Crown seeks 25 more years for Dellen Millard at 3rd murder trial
Judge to deliver ruling on Dec. 18 on Millard, who has been convicted of 3 killings
If the Crown gets its way, Dellen Millard, one of this country's most infamous serial killers, will die in jail.
Millard's final fate is now in the hands of Justice Maureen Forestell, who spent Friday morning listening to submissions from lawyers at a sentencing hearing for Millard in the shooting death of his father, Wayne.
The proceedings mark an end to a journey through the courts for Millard, 33, for a series of brutal murders in recent years that made international headlines and shocked southern Ontario — capped off with his most recent trial for the death of his father, who he shot in the eye while he slept.
Now Millard, who is already serving time for the murders of Hamilton man Tim Bosma and Toronto woman Laura Babcock, is staring down yet another life sentence.
"There are times for mercy, there are times an offender has perhaps had a difficult upbringing ... but that is not the case here," assistant Crown attorney Jill Cameron said in court.
"There is no explanation for his crimes other than pure entitlement, depravity and evil."
Any hope for his future was callously snuffed out by an ungrateful and selfish son.— Jill Cameron, Crown attorney
Millard's third conviction carries an automatic sentence of 25 years without a chance of parole. Now, Forestell must decide whether or not the Toronto man will serve that sentence consecutively, or concurrently to his previous sentences.
The Crown is seeking a consecutive sentence, which would tack on another 25 years to Millard's imprisonment. That would effectively guarantee he spends the rest of his life behind bars, as he currently isn't eligible for parole until 2063.
Should Forestell decide on a consecutive sentence at this trial, Millard wouldn't be eligible for parole until 2088, when he would be 102.
Cameron said Wayne Millard was a "loving father," and a "kind man," who was trying to build a new business to leave as a legacy to his son.
"Any hope for his future was callously snuffed out by an ungrateful and selfish son," Cameron said.
As she said this, Millard emphatically shook his head in the prisoner's box and looked to the ceiling.
'He will die before then'
Millard's lawyer, Ravin Pillay, said a sentence that would ensure Millard is in a penitentiary until 2088 would be "extraordinarily harsh and excessive."
"He will die before then," Pillay said.
He also said Millard has been a model inmate while serving time in general population at the Toronto East Detention Centre.
"There is no evidence presented here that Mr. Millard is incapable of rehabilitation," he said.
At the end of the hearing, the judge asked Millard if he had anything to say. He rose, and implored Forestell not to give his previous convictions too much weight.
"The facts of the other cases are very much in dispute," he said. He is currently appealing the verdicts in both the Bosma and Babcock cases.
Forestell said she would return with a ruling on Dec. 18.
Death originally ruled a suicide
Millard was found guilty of killing his father at a judge-alone trial that concluded in Superior Court in Toronto back in September. In her decision, Forestell said Millard carried out a "planned and deliberate killing" of his father.
"I am satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt that Dellen Millard killed his father by shooting him in the left eye as he slept," the judge said in her decision.
Wayne Millard's death was originally ruled a suicide. His body was found at his home at 5 Maple Gate Crt. in the Toronto suburb of Etobicoke on Nov. 29, 2012. At the time, Dellen Millard was living at his father's home.
Millard wasn't charged in his father's death until 2014, after police started investigating the slayings of Bosma, a husband and father from the Ancaster area of Hamilton, and Babcock, a Toronto woman who had been involved with Millard.
Once the Wayne Millard case was reopened, investigators discovered that his son's DNA was on the gun used to shoot his father, and his cellphone had pinged off nearby cell towers around the time the older man died.
Whether he killed himself emerged as the trial's key question as the evidence unfolded.
The Crown argued that Millard shot his father to escape a legacy and business being built for him that he didn't want, as his father was using family funds to expand an aviation business.
His defence team discounted the Crown's motive in its closing submissions, and argued Wayne Millard was a reclusive alcoholic who killed himself.
Follow along from inside the courtroom with a recap of CBC's live blog. On mobile and can't see it? View the live blog here.
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