Phone records place Dellen Millard at father's home the day he died, Crown says
The death of 71-year-old Wayne Millard was originally ruled a suicide in 2012
Phone records entered as an exhibit at Dellen Millard's first-degree murder trial for the death of his father put Millard at his father's home on the day he died, the Crown says.
The records, which were entered as an agreed statement of facts in court Friday morning, place a cellphone that court has heard belonged to Millard at his father's home the morning of Nov. 29, 2012.
That's the day the Crown alleges Millard fatally shot his father.
The death of 71-year-old Wayne Millard was originally ruled a suicide in 2012. 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.
Millard, 32, was convicted of first-degree murder in the deaths of Tim Bosma, a father and husband from Hamilton, and Laura Babcock, a Toronto woman he had been involved with. He was charged in his father's death after police started investigating the disappearances of Bosma and Babcock.
Millard has pleaded not guilty to killing his father in the judge-alone trial being held in Ontario Superior Court in Toronto.
Usually, phone records like those submitted Friday by the Crown would be read out and explained in court, for the benefit of a jury. But because this trial is before a judge alone — and the defence isn't contesting the records — they were entered as an agreed statement of fact.
Millard had 2 phones, Crown says
According to the Crown, Millard had two cellphones on him the day his father died.
In the court documents, both are shown pinging off of cellphone towers near Mark Smich's home in Oakville, Ont. just after midnight on Nov. 29, 2012. Smich was Millard's co-accused, who was also found guilty in the murders of Bosma and Babcock.
Court heard Thursday from Marlena Meneses, Smich's former girlfriend. She testified that Millard randomly slept at Smich's home one night in 2012 — something he had never done before.
Meneses also testified that Millard left for several hours, saying he was "going on a date," before returning to Smich's home to sleep. Meneses did not specify the exact date this happened.
She also testified that Millard left one of his phones at Smich's home the night he slept there.
According to the court documents, one of the phones allegedly belonging to Millard calls A1 Oakville Taxi just after 1 a.m. on Nov. 29, while near Smich's home. That same phone then later pings off a cellphone tower near his father's home in Etobicoke at 6:11 a.m.
Court previously heard from Janet Campbell, who was Wayne Millard's girlfriend in November 2012, that the pair were talking on the phone into the early hours of the morning on Nov. 29.
Court hears from Millard's uncle
Court also heard testimony Friday from Robert Burns, Millard's uncle, and a Toronto cab driver.
Burns told the court he was on vacation with his family at some point before Millard's arrest in 2013, when he started getting calls from his office. He was told his nephew had been calling frequently, and saying it was an emergency.
He and Millard were not at all on good terms at this time. Burns said when Millard was a child, he saw him fairly frequently, but as he got older, he saw his nephew less — largely because he was worried about the effect Millard was having on his own children.
"I tried to minimize it," Burns said. "[Millard] was forging what in his mind was a decent relationship. I had a different opinion."
Burns said he called Millard back on the phone number he had provided at his office.
"I quickly asserted in fact there was no emergency," Burns said, adding that the call was "pretty brief" because the conversation was "just drivel."
He then hung up on Millard, he testified.
The Crown made a point of having Burns read out Millard's phone number in court. It was the same number shown in court documents to be pinging off the cellphone tower near Wayne Millard's home on the day he died.
Cellphone records
The cellphone records also show Millard's phone calling CityTaxi Toronto for a cab that morning.
A CityTaxi driver appeared in court, but testified he did not recognize Millard, or know his name.
The records do, however, show the driver called Millard's phone with his personal cellphone that morning.
The documents submitted by the Crown also show Millard's phone at the Waterloo International Airport on the afternoon of Nov. 29, before going to Mark Smich's home in Oakville, and then finally pinging off towers near his father's Maple Gate home again just before 6 p.m. that day.
According to Millard's statements to police, that was around the time he says he discovered his father's body.
The trial continues Monday morning.
Follow along with a recap with 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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