Former associate saw Dellen Millard with gun before his father died, murder trial hears
Millard's behaviour on the night his father died was unusual, Marlena Meneses testifies
One of Dellen Millard's former associates testified at his murder trial Thursday that she saw him with a gun sometime before his father died.
Marlena Meneses, 24, who lives in the Toronto area, also said Millard randomly slept at the home of her boyfriend, Mark Smich, one night in 2012 — something he'd never done before — and then days later, she found out Wayne Millard was dead.
The 71-year-old's death was originally ruled a suicide in 2012. He was found at his home at 5 Maple Gate Court in Etobicoke, Ont., with a single gunshot wound through his eye. His son was charged after police started investigating the disappearances of Hamilton's Tim Bosma and Toronto's Laura Babcock.
Millard, 32, and Smich, 30, were both convicted of first-degree murder in the deaths of Bosma and Babcock, a Toronto woman who once dated Dellen Millard.
He has pleaded not guilty to killing his father in the judge-alone trial being held in Ontario Superior Court in Toronto.
According to court documents submitted by the Crown, Millard was spending time with Meneses and Smich, in Oakville, Ont., on the day Wayne Millard died.
As we walked in, we saw a gun on his bed.- Marlena Meneses
Meneses didn't specify a date in her testimony, but she said that Millard was hanging out at Smich's house before he left to "go on a date."
She said she and Smich walked him to a corner store in Oakville that night, but the pair left before they saw Millard go inside. Millard had two cellphones with him that night, she said, and he left one of them at Smich's home.
Millard returned to the Oakville home later that night and slept there, Meneses said.
"Mark and I passed out at some point, and I remember waking up to Dellen standing over us saying he was back from his date. It was hours after he left," she testified.
Meneses also described the gun she saw at Dellen Millard's home before Wayne Millard died. She said it was a "western-looking gun, with a wooden handle "and a tube." Court has previously heard a revolver was the alleged murder weapon in the case.
"Me and Mark were downstairs, and we were bored, so we went upstairs to bug Dell," Meneses said. "As we walked in, we saw a gun on his bed."
Defence attempts to discredit witness
Millard's lawyer, Ravin Pillay, did everything he could in his cross-examination to cast doubt on Meneses's testimony.
He peppered her with questions about her memory, and her drug use. Meneses said she had used drugs like MDMA, cocaine and oxycodone during that point in her life, on top of smoking pot and drinking regularly.
She also said she's a "forgetful person sometimes" and agreed that she "does not have a good memory."
Pillay said Meneses repeatedly lied during her testimony at all three trials, and while giving statements to police.
The crux of that argument centred around the "old school" gun the Crown believes is the murder weapon in the case, which Meneses said during her testimony Thursday she only saw once, in Millard's bedroom.
Pillay suggested that Meneses had not only seen that gun before, but she'd fired it — at Millard's farm in Ayr, Ont.
Meneses said she did fire a gun while with Millard and Smich at the farm, but said it was a different one.
Pillay then pivoted, and said he never mentioned that she had fired one of the guns connected to the case in any of her numerous statements to police. Meneses said that's because she was never asked that specific question.
"Who really wants to admit that to an officer?" she said.
Wayne Millard in bad shape, Meneses says
Millard's defence team has suggested that Wayne Millard killed himself because he was a reclusive, depressed alcoholic who was dealing with a debilitating back problem.
Meneses agreed with Pillay's suggestion that Wayne Millard looked "ill, sick and weak," and also that he had body odour, and looked like he hadn't washed in a while.
"It looked like he hadn't cleaned his clothes, right?" Pillay asked.
"Correct," Meneses responded.
This marks Meneses's third time testifying as a Crown witness in a case against Millard.
She first appeared at the Bosma trial in 2016, where she testified that Smich had told her Millard had shot and killed the 32-year-old father of one who was never seen again after taking two men on a test drive of a truck he was trying to sell.
She testified again at the Babcock trial, saying she saw Dellen Millard and Smich "testing out" an animal incinerator.
It was revealed at both trials that the incinerator, called "The Eliminator," was used to burn human remains.
- Follow along with a recap of the CBC's live blog from inside the courtroom below. On mobile and can't see it? View the live blog here.
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