Tim Bosma trial this week: A dramatic account of his final moments
Live coverage continues Monday at 10 a.m.
What police believe to be the remains of Tim Bosma were found on a farm in Ayr, Ont., three years ago today on May 14.
Eight days before, the Hamilton man had been reported missing by his wife, Sharlene. He went out that night with two men who came to test drive the truck he was selling online, and never came back.
In the last week — at the trial of the two men accused of his murder — jurors, friends and family heard, for the first time, a devastating description of his last few hours.
It came from Mark Smich, one of the two men accused of his murder, who testified in his own defence.
Dellen Millard, 30, of Toronto, and Smich, 28, of Oakville, Ont., have pleaded not guilty to charges of first-degree murder.
A bullet hole in the window, Bosma's head against the dash
The week started with news that Millard would not be testifying in his own defence, but that his co-accused Smich would testify.
On Monday, Justice Andrew Goodman excused the jury until Wednesday morning as Smich's lawyers prepared their defence. Goodman reminded the jurors they had yet to hear any defence or his final charge. "You are not to make any final determinations or conclusions until all that is complete," Goodman said.
When the jury returned Wednesday it heard Smich recount how he and Millard came to view Bosma's truck and drove off with Bosma for a test drive. They were supposed to be scoping it out in anticipation of stealing it later.
Smich said that after they drove a short distance, Millard suggested he get out and follow them in Millard's Yukon SUV. Smich said he was surprised, but got out and followed Bosma's truck, as Millard had suggested.
Somewhere on a country road, he said, Bosma's truck swerved to the side of the road and stopped. Smich said he saw Millard get out and put what he thought was a gun into his satchel.
"He [MIllard] just said, 'I'm taking the truck' and goes and grabs some stuff from the back. When I got out, I walked around, and I seen a bullet hole in the window and Mr. Bosma laying with his head against the dashboard."
Hearing these words, Bosma's mother ran from the courtroom. His widow, Sharlene, hung her head and cried.
Gun buried in a forest
On Thursday, Smich returned with more dramatic testimony. Smich said Andrew Michalski, Millard's former roommate, handed him a toolbox after Millard was arrested. Smich said it contained drugs and a gun.
"Did you have any idea Michalski was bringing you a gun?" his lawyer Thomas Dungey asked. "No, no idea," Smich said Thursday. "I thought he was going to be bringing me a bag of weed."
Smich testified that he believes it was the gun used to shoot Bosma and that Millard was trying to frame him by sending it to him.
"I was very scared at that time," Smich said. "I was confused. I ended up going out and burying the gun … I jumped on my bike, rode out in the forest and buried it."
"Do you know where today that gun would be?" Dungey asked. "No, I don't," Smich said.
The trial continues Monday morning. That's when lawyers for Millard and the Crown will cross-examine Smich about his testimony.
Follow live coverage from CBC Hamilton's Adam Carter starting at 10 a.m..