Tim Bosma trial: Celebrating a 'mission' and testimony about who fired the fatal shot
Testimony this week: an ex-girlfriend and a forensic computer expert
This week, the trial of the two men accused of the murder of Hamilton's Tim Bosma began with testimony describing text messages about a plan to steal a truck, and ended with the jury hearing a dramatic accusation about which of them actually shot Bosma.
Mark Smich, 28, of Oakville, Ont., and Dellen Millard, 30, of Toronto are charged with first-degree murder in Bosma's death. Both have pleaded not guilty.
Bosma, 32, who lived in the suburban Ancaster area of Hamilton, vanished on May 6, 2013, after taking two men on a test drive in a pickup truck he was trying to sell. Investigators later found charred human remains, believed to belong to Bosma, in a livestock incinerator on Millard's farm in Waterloo, Ont.
Marlena Meneses, Smich's girlfriend at the time of the Bosma killing, delivered some of the most dramatic testimony heard so far at the jury trial in Superior Court in Hamilton.
Meneses, 22, told a packed courtroom that Smich told her Bosma was killed the night of May 6, 2013, when he took Millard and Smich on a test drive of a truck he was trying to sell.
"He said that Dell murdered him. That he shot him," Meneses testified, as members of the Bosma family became visibly emotional inside the courtroom. Bosma's wife Sharlene sat stone faced, while others cried.
"He told me he did nothing, that Dell did it all," she said. "He told me that Mr. Bosma was gone, gone."
Earlier, Meneses testified she met Smich for the first time at a Tim Hortons and "We just hit eyes, and they were all big, and it was like he was in love with me."
She said they had an immediate connection. That all ended when Smich was arrested for Bosma's murder in 2013. She was arrested too, but never charged.
Meneses said she hasn't spoken to Smich since the arrest. "The day I got arrested, I just figured why even bother still being with him," she said.
On Thursday, Meneses was asked why she didn't go immediately to police. Through tears, just a few feet from where the Bosma family sat, she said "I should have. I regret it. I could have stopped so much if I had gone to the police. I should have."
The 'all-nighter' when Bosma vanished
On Tuesday, jurors heard that Millard was texting his girlfriend, Christina Noudga, about an "all-nighter" mission on the night that Bosma disappeared.
For the first time, the jury saw Millard's text records from around the time the Crown alleges Bosma was killed — and they painted a chilling picture, one that weighed heavily on the Bosma family members in court.
One message sent from Millard's phone at 7:40 p.m. on May 6, 2013, read: "I'm on my way to a mission now. If it's a flop I'll be done in 2 hrs. If it goes… it'll be an all nighter."
Hamilton police Det. Const. Craig Harrison testified that a message back from "Kinks" (which the jury has heard was a nickname for Millard's girlfriend, Christina Noudga) at 10:47 p.m.: "So you finish?" The response: "Gonna be an all-nighter."
The jury also saw a message from Noudga at 8:26 a.m. on May 7 that read: "Still working?" The message back from Millard's phone read: "Stage 1 complete, taking a respite. Not sure yet." A later message from Millard's phone read: "I'm gonna take a nap."
The plan to steal a truck
To begin the week jurors heard testimony from Harrison that texts on Millard's cellphone show he planned to steal a Dodge 3500 truck like Bosma's as far back as February 2012.
Harrison showed the courts texts between Millard and a contact named "Say 10" — which the Crown alleges was a nickname for Smich.
"Next on the list is: getting you a G1, sound equipment for recording, nab a dodge 3500, sell the green jeep, nab a Nacra18 sail boat," a text shown in court read.
For hours Monday, the jury was shown hundreds of messages between Millard, Smich and other friends that highlight the group's plans to steal different items, and Millard's quest to track down a Dodge 3500. Bosma's truck, the jury has heard, was a Dodge 3500 pickup truck with a diesel engine — something several witnesses have said was what Millard was looking for.