Laura Babcock Murder Trial - *GUILTY*

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Kamille said:
Ridiculous that MS is basically admitting to burning LB’s body while DM is denying that she’s even deceased and that the appeals court won’t be able to use one against the other. SMH
Click to expand...
YIKES !! I was shocked to see Laura's thread at top of new posts

DM will still serve a LIFE sentence for Tim's murder--he will not get out, IMO
Let him try for lesser sentences for Laura...he is still serving LIFE

The only bad thing about that is Laura's family having to deal with all of this again. My heart goes out to them.
 
BBM
deugirtni said:
>snipped
Pillay said he was abandoning two grounds of Millard’s appeal — a “fresh evidence” claim and an unreasonable verdict.
Appeal argues Dellen Millard killed Laura Babcock alone and Smich only helped burn her body

As is the custom at the Court of Appeal, neither Smich or Millard was present in the Toronto courtroom. However, Millard, 37, appeared by Zoom from his prison near Kingston because later this week he will represent himself on his appeals related to Tim and Wayne.
...
Smich’s appeal lawyers argue that, while it seems clear their client participated in disposing of Laura’s body ...there is nothing in the rap or anywhere else that directly ties him to her murder.

Smich’s verdict was “a wrongful conviction,” Myles Anevich told the court.

“Mr. Smich is not a morally innocent person … But the jury was not told about how all the evidence was 100 per cent consistent with accessory after the fact.”

The trial judge failed in his duty “to guide the jury’s mind” to the possibility Smich’s post-offence conduct was not evidence of his involvement in the murder.
Opinion | Week of appeals begins for Dellen Millard, Mark Smich

When he did finally appear on the screen after the lunch break and was able to be heard, Millard — blue shirt, moustache, trim beard, surrounded by stacks of paper in a sparse room — resurrected the whingeing, querulous, officious persona he’d presented at trial.

It was Millhaven that had cocked up and it was Millhaven that had obstructed his efforts to get documents he needed and transmit materials electronically.

The judges didn’t quite understand what materials Millard was talking about or how lack of them might impede the hearings.

The Crown countered that Millard had missed a slew of due dates over the past year to file materials and participate in case management by phone. This stalling by Millard was a well-established tactic at trial.
Opinion | Blame game unfolds as Millard and Smich appeal murder convictions

But the Crown says the cases against the two men for the murder of Laura Babcock are overwhelming, calling on the court to dismiss their appeals of the conviction.
...
The three-judge panel is scheduled later this week to hear the appeals of their convictions for the murder of Tim Bosma...

Millard is also set to appeal his conviction for murdering his father, Wayne Millard.
Ontario's highest court hears Dellen Millard, Mark Smich appeals in Babcock murder
Click to expand...
In the US, this is practically the only grounds for appeal that is ever effective, new evidence, and sometimes even that doesn’t work. They’ve even denied appeals with exonerating DNA and someone else confessing to the crime. “Wrongful Convictions” hosted by founding member of the Innocence Project, Jason Flom, has a podcast with tons of examples.
It’s very rare for an appeals court panel of judges to over-rule another judge and a jury’s decision.
 
BBM
deugirtni said:
>snipped
The panel seemed to quickly dismiss that ground of appeal, telling the Crown they didn’t even have to reply.
MANDEL: Triple killer and wannabe lawyer Dellen Millard launches appeal

Millard was rich, older, involved in business, while Smich relied on Millard for much of his income and often lived in Millard’s house.

What evidence there is of Babcock’s murder, Litkowski said, is that Millard did it alone, and that Smich was asked to help him cover it up.

The Crown’s theory of the motive for killing Babcock was jealousy by Millard’s then-current girlfriend, Christina Noudga, over Babcock, who was a former girlfriend Millard maintained contact with.
...
Justice Eileen Gillese, speaking for the three-judge panel, warned that if Millard can’t be present for the appeals in which he is un-represented by a lawyer, then those appeals cannot be heard as scheduled.

Gillese said if the prison couldn’t ensure Millard can participate by video, they will have to bring him in person to court.
...
Pillay also said the trial judge erred in instructing the jury they could consider Smich’s rap lyrics as evidence against Millard and should not have allowed hearsay evidence from Millard’s uncle, Robert Burns.
...
Pillay said Burn’s evidence was hearsay — indirect information from someone else — to dirty his client up and was opinion evidence from a witness who had “such hostility” to Millard.
...
Pillay said he was abandoning two grounds of Millard’s appeal — a “fresh evidence” claim and an unreasonable verdict.
Appeal argues Dellen Millard killed Laura Babcock alone and Smich only helped burn her body

As is the custom at the Court of Appeal, neither Smich or Millard was present in the Toronto courtroom. However, Millard, 37, appeared by Zoom from his prison near Kingston because later this week he will represent himself on his appeals related to Tim and Wayne.
...
Smich’s appeal lawyers argue that, while it seems clear their client participated in disposing of Laura’s body ...there is nothing in the rap or anywhere else that directly ties him to her murder.

Smich’s verdict was “a wrongful conviction,” Myles Anevich told the court.

“Mr. Smich is not a morally innocent person … But the jury was not told about how all the evidence was 100 per cent consistent with accessory after the fact.”

The trial judge failed in his duty “to guide the jury’s mind” to the possibility Smich’s post-offence conduct was not evidence of his involvement in the murder.
Opinion | Week of appeals begins for Dellen Millard, Mark Smich

When he did finally appear on the screen after the lunch break and was able to be heard, Millard — blue shirt, moustache, trim beard, surrounded by stacks of paper in a sparse room — resurrected the whingeing, querulous, officious persona he’d presented at trial.

It was Millhaven that had cocked up and it was Millhaven that had obstructed his efforts to get documents he needed and transmit materials electronically.

The judges didn’t quite understand what materials Millard was talking about or how lack of them might impede the hearings.

The Crown countered that Millard had missed a slew of due dates over the past year to file materials and participate in case management by phone. This stalling by Millard was a well-established tactic at trial.
Opinion | Blame game unfolds as Millard and Smich appeal murder convictions

But the Crown says the cases against the two men for the murder of Laura Babcock are overwhelming, calling on the court to dismiss their appeals of the conviction.
...
The three-judge panel is scheduled later this week to hear the appeals of their convictions for the murder of Tim Bosma...

Millard is also set to appeal his conviction for murdering his father, Wayne Millard.
Ontario's highest court hears Dellen Millard, Mark Smich appeals in Babcock murder
Click to expand...
Also, L O L
 
From yesterday's court:

At the end of her arguments against overturning the murder convictions of Dellen Millard and Mark Smich in the slaying of Laura Babcock, Crown attorney Katie Doherty told the Court of Appeal panel what their victims had long feared: Given last year’s Supreme Court landmark ruling, the prosecution agreed the men’s current sentences “cannot stand” and should be quashed.

No doubt for the sake of Babcocks’ stricken parents who sat in the courtroom, she made pains to emphasize that the multiple killers were sentenced to life in prison, and that doesn’t change.

But what does change now is monumental to those who continue to grieve Babcock, Tim Bosma and Millard’s father, Wayne. Their murderers can now apply for parole after 25 years and not have to wait the consecutive periods that had been imposed for each additional slaying: Millard to 75 years of parole ineligibility after killing three people and Smich to 50, for murdering two.

In custody since their arrests in May 2013, the pair now have 15 years to go before they can make their first attempt at release.

MANDEL: Crown agrees triple killer Dellen Millard can seek parole after 25 years
 
Just another reminder of how dangerous and manipulative this guy is..

Opinion | Serial killer Dellen Millard convicted in prison assault

Demonstrating the power he tries to wield over others, self-represented Millard called the victim to the witness stand. The reluctant man — who could have died of his injuries — testified Millard in fact saved his life that day.

The judge noted Trites was very reluctant to testify. He initially refused to leave his cell and would not be cross-examined by the Crown.

For years, Millard, who grew up wealthy, held a strange power over his group of misfit and delinquent friends. Especially Smich. He directed them to go on “missions” — crimes that ran the gamut from stealing plants from a nursery, to car and truck thefts, to murder.

It would not be a stretch to believe — as Griffin’s decision suggests — that Millard influenced the stabbing victim before he hit the witness stand.

Millard has done it before. And with a lifetime of prison ahead of him — unless he works a miracle at the Court of Appeal — he may do it again.

Sentencing will take place in April.
 
everybodhi said:
Just another reminder of how dangerous and manipulative this guy is..

Opinion | Serial killer Dellen Millard convicted in prison assault

Demonstrating the power he tries to wield over others, self-represented Millard called the victim to the witness stand. The reluctant man — who could have died of his injuries — testified Millard in fact saved his life that day.

The judge noted Trites was very reluctant to testify. He initially refused to leave his cell and would not be cross-examined by the Crown.

For years, Millard, who grew up wealthy, held a strange power over his group of misfit and delinquent friends. Especially Smich. He directed them to go on “missions” — crimes that ran the gamut from stealing plants from a nursery, to car and truck thefts, to murder.

It would not be a stretch to believe — as Griffin’s decision suggests — that Millard influenced the stabbing victim before he hit the witness stand.

Millard has done it before. And with a lifetime of prison ahead of him — unless he works a miracle at the Court of Appeal — he may do it again.

Sentencing will take place in April.
Click to expand...
Yep, it still defies logic that he is being allowed to roam free in prison and start another little cult following to do his bidding. Is our corrections system that broken that they can’t get a read on this guy? He’s even trying to manipulate the appeals court by getting a chance at three separate appeal dates because “he can’t find a lawyer”. I was under the impression that if no lawyer would take your appeal case, you either represent yourself or you’re out of luck. You can’t enter your own appeal and then spend years looking for a lawyer to help you. Maybe I’m wrong? Seems our system bends a lot for criminal. SMH

MOO
 
Last edited:
jash said:

Multiple murderer Dellen Millard...told the court the arguments brought against him by prosecutors and his co-convicted during the 2016 trial played to the jury's emotions, resulting in an "irreparably unfair trial".

"Both the Crown and [co-convicted Mark Smich] made submissions to the jury that appealed to emotion. The consequence was an irreparably unfair trial that no instruction was capable of correcting," he said, appearing by video from prison.

"I was characterized as the perfect villain. Wealthy, privileged, seemingly powerful and advantaged."

...

On Wednesday, Millard asked the court why he, someone who had taken "extreme measures" to avoid getting caught for thefts in the past, would be so "sloppy and careless," the night of a purportedly planned murder.

He said, "Why show my identity to witnesses and not delete content from my devices or turn off my own cellphone?"
Click to expand...
What “extreme measures“ did he take before? Seems like all his past crimes caught up to him during the investigation for TB. Everything was found on his computer and devices. Fool doesn’t realize no one was really looking for evidence of his past crimes since thefts aren’t that important.

MOO
 
Kamille said:
Yep, it still defies logic that he is being allowed to roam free in prison and start another little cult following to do his bidding. Is our corrections system that broken that they can’t get a read on this guy? He’s even trying to manipulate the appeals court by getting a chance at three separate appeal dates because “he can’t find a lawyer”. I was under the impression that if no lawyer would take your appeal case, you either represent yourself or you’re out of luck. You can’t enter your own appeal and then spend years looking for a lawyer to help you. Maybe I’m wrong? Seems our system bends a lot for criminal. SMH

MOO
Click to expand...

Not only that but they actually approved his request for transfer to a medium security facility! It's only because of the stabbing incident/conviction that he is staying put. So shocking and infuriating!
 
jash said:
Not only that but they actually approved his request for transfer to a medium security facility! It's only because of the stabbing incident/conviction that he is staying put. So shocking and infuriating!
Click to expand...
Right? Imagine the manipulation he could pull off in medium security. I wonder if he’s still got “unknown” persons running stuff out of prison for him. :rolleyes:

MOO
 
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