Court denies Millard request to adjourn appeal on conviction for murdering his father

Ontario's highest court has denied a request from multiple murderer Dellen Millard to adjourn a hearing for an appeal of one of his convictions.

The Ontario Court of Appeal says Millard's hearing in his appeal regarding the murder of his father will go ahead as scheduled Friday.

The court is also hearing appeals this week of Millard and Mark Smich's convictions for the high-profile murders of Tim Bosma and Laura Babcock.

• Download our app to get local alerts on your device
• Get the latest local updates right to your inbox

 

Justice Eileen Gillese, speaking on behalf of the three-judge panel, says there was no basis to grant the adjournment.

Millard, who is representing himself, asked for an adjournment until April or August so he could either get a lawyer's help or full representation to appeal his conviction for the 2012 murder of his father, a wealthy aviation executive whose death was originally ruled a suicide.

The lawyer for the Crown indicated the appeals had already undergone lengthy delays and Millard, who is also self-represented on the Bosma appeal, had failed to meet several extended deadlines to file his paperwork.

Lawyer Benita Wassenaar cited a case management judge who said in August 2021 that part of the problem stemmed from Millard's "unshakeable, but mistaken belief he is in charge of deciding" when the appeals will be heard.

Wassenaar pointed to Millard's lengthy history of making similar adjournment requests, including during the Babcock trial when a judge found he had enough money and time to get a lawyer.

Millard made his case for the adjournment Tuesday after lawyers wrapped up arguments in the Babcock appeal, the first of the three appeals scheduled this week.

On Wednesday the court will start to hear Millard and lawyers for his once-close friend Smich appeal their convictions for murdering Bosma, a 32-year-old man killed after he took the two men out for a test drive of his pickup truck in May 2013.

A jury in June 2016 first found Millard and Smich guilty of murdering Bosma. The trial heard Bosma's body was burned in an incinerator.

The Crown argued the same incinerator was used to get rid of the body of 23-year-old Babcock, theorizing Millard was motivated to kill his one-time lover to settle a love triangle with his then-current girlfriend. Babcock, whose body has never been found, vanished in July 2012.

Toronto police also reopened an investigation into Wayne Millard's death shortly after his son was charged with Bosman's murder. Dellen Millard said he found his father dead in his home with a bullet through his eye.

Millard was convicted of first-degree murder in his father's death.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 14, 2023.