Tim Bosma trial: The closing arguments
Judge will start his charge to the jury Friday and likely wrap up on Monday
It was a week of final words at the trial of the two men accused in the murder of Hamilton's Tim Bosma.
Lawyers representing the Crown and accused killers Dellen Millard and Mark Smich made their final arguments to the jury in Ontario Superior Court.
Smich, 28, of Oakville, Ont., and Millard, 30, of Toronto, have both pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder. Bosma, who lived in the Ancaster area of Hamilton, disappeared on May 6, 2013, after going on a test drive with Smich and Millard in a pickup truck he was trying to sell.
Starting Friday, Justice Andrew Goodman will begin charging the jury on the legal principles of the case, and on how they should weigh the wealth evidence they have heard over the last four months. Here's some of what jurors will have to take into consideration:
The case for Dellen Millard
Millard's lawyer Ravin Pillay began the week by suggesting to the jury that his client was too smart to have acted the way he did if he was planning a murder. He wouldn't have left behind so much damning evidence, Pillay said Tuesday in his closing argument. He added that the element of planning is a crucial part of the Crown's case in pushing for a first-degree murder conviction.
"The murder was not planned and deliberate," Pillay told the jurors. He then spent the day trying to chip away at the mountain of evidence presented against Millard at the trial.
He ran through a host of things Millard did or didn't do around the time Bosma died. He pointed out that Millard didn't attempt to conceal himself in any way on May 6 — with Bosma's wife, Sharlene Bosma, and the family's tenant, Wayne De Boer, both seeing his face — before Bosma took him and Smich on the test drive.
"He faced them, he was friendly," Pillay said. "He didn't attempt to hide in the shadows."
The case for Mark Smich
On Wednesday, it was Thomas Dungey's turn. Smich's lawyer laid full responsibility for the murder on Millard, saying there is a "mountain of independent evidence" against him and that his attempts at witness tampering from behind bars show the "criminal mind" of a guilty man.
The lawyer began his closing argument by attempting to poke holes in the Crown's theory that Bosma was shot in a field not far from his home. No evidence was ever found in that field, Dungey said.
"How could that be? Two fumbling amateurs? These aren't hitmen!" Dungey boomed in front of the jury. "Give me a break." Surely, Dungey said, a millionaire and a small time drug dealer would have left something behind.
"They would have dropped something. Surely there'd be some glass from the window being shot ... but there's nothing found. Not a trace."
Dungey also pointed out that if Smich had taken part in killing Bosma, and then had been in Millard's SUV, as the Crown alleges, there would be evidence of the murder left behind in the SUV.
"There's no forensics. No blood. No clothing. No shell casing. No broken glass. The Crown has no evidence whatsoever of their theory."
The case against both accused
On Thursday, the jury heard closing arguments from assistant Crown attorney Tony Leitch. And, on that big question of who pulled the trigger Leitch said it didn't matter. He said both are guilty, and both are murderers.
"You may never be sure about every aspect of what happened, and you don't need to be. None of you need to decide exactly who did what," Leitch told jurors.
"If there was one shooter, does that mean the other non-shooter is not guilty? Not at all," Leitch said. "If you are spending your time trying to decide who did what, you are missing the point."
Leitch also addressed the lack of motive. The Crown hasn't presented a concrete motive, and isn't obliged to, he said.
"It seems absurd to murder a man for a used truck, but that's what they did. Killers are not always rational," he said.
"The fact is, sometimes people are just killers ... it is horrifying and senseless, but it is what happened here."
The trial resumes Friday when Goodman is expected to begin his charge to the jury. It is expected to take two days to complete ending on Monday, June 13. After hearing the judge's instructions, the jury will be sequestered until a verdict is reached.