Defence abandons legal fight over Dellen Millard's police statement from night of dad's death

Dellen Millard's lawyer has dropped an application to have a lengthy video statement his client made to police ruled inadmissible at Millard's first-degree murder trial in the death of his father, Wayne. 

The recorded interview with Millard was made at a police station on the night he says he found his father's body — and it's an important piece of evidence at the trial. 

In the video, he says his father was stressed about his business, drinking too much, in pain and dealing with depression.

"He had depression in him ... he carried some great sadness with him throughout life, but I never really knew what it was," Millard says in the video. "He never wanted to share it with me."

The 32-year-old's lawyer, Ravin Pillay, had planned to argue Millard was under "investigative detention" when he gave that video statement, and should have had a lawyer present — which meant, he originally contended, that the statement should be ruled inadmissible. 

The Crown, however, has argued throughout the trial that Millard was only a witness at the time, and not under suspicion of any wrongdoing.

Death originally ruled a suicide

It's an argument the Crown had been preparing for throughout the trial. Every time one of the Crown prosecutors questioned a police witness over the last 2½ weeks, they asked if Millard was forced to talk on the night he says he found his father's body. They also asked if Millard was intimidated, physically or otherwise, in any way, by any officer.

Every police witness said no, he wasn't.

In the end, Pillay dropped the application after discussions with the Crown.

The death of 71-year-old Wayne Millard was originally ruled a suicide. He was found at his home at 5 Maple Gate Court in the Toronto suburb of Etobicoke with a single gunshot wound through his eye on Nov. 29, 2012.

His son was charged in the death after police started investigating the murders of Tim Bosma, a father and husband from Hamilton, and Laura Babcock, a Toronto woman he had been involved with.

Millard is currently serving consecutive life sentences for those slayings. He has pleaded not guilty to killing his father at the judge-alone trial being held in Ontario Superior Court in Toronto. 

Trial's last steps

This week's legal arguments are the last anticipated steps before the Crown closes its case at the trial. On Monday, lawyers spent hours sparring over the evidence of a crime scene reconstructionist who is vital to the Crown's case. Det. Const. Grant Sutherland previously told the court that he does not believe Wayne Millard shot himself.

Pillay has argued Sutherland used "unsound science" that "fails on many different fronts," and therefore shouldn't be included in the judge's decision.

Justice Maureen Forestell told the court Tuesday that she plans to rule on Sutherland's evidence on Friday. Once she does, it's expected the Crown will close its case — and then it will be up to Pillay to divulge whether or not he will call defence witnesses.

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adam.carter@cbc.ca