Headed back to the courthouse this morning as Dellen Millard’s trial for first degree murder in the death of his father continues. Follow along for updates.
Retired OPP officer Jim Falconer will be back in the witness box today, talking about what he found on Millard’s computers and phones.
Also of note this morning - I’m hearing the Crown now does not plan to call Millard’s mother, Madeleine Burns, as a witness. It remains to be seen if she could end up in the witness box as a defence witness. There’s no word on that though - Millard’s lawyer, Ravin Pillay, is under no obligation to call witnesses at all.
Court is now in session. Crown Ken Lockhart is resuming his questions for Falconer.
We're seeing some text messages between Millard and his mother from November of 2012. They're talking about using a trailer to move some furniture. "Plese call me. Texting is such an odd medium," she says.
Falconer is now giving a technical explanation about data extraction. It's not really an explanation that's helpful for us, so I'll pick it back up when he's talking about the evidence directly.
Now back in the texts. In one from Nov. 29, Millard texts Andrew Michalski that he's going to drop Smich off at his home, then play DOTA, which is an online multiplayer game.
At 5:56 p.m. on Nov 29, Millard texts his friend Andrew Michalski and says: "bro please come over, I don't want to be alone, something terrible has happened." Michalski responds: "Ok Im coming." About 7:08 p.m., Michalski texts Millard: "Dude I'm sorry for not coming to see Wayne. I couldn't if you need ANYTHING let me know"
Millard also tells his girlfriend, Christina Noudga, not to come over in a text around this time, and says his father is dead. There are also condolence texts from another friend, Matt Hagerman.
Now a text from Christina Noudga to Millard just after midnight on nov 30: "Hope you're holding up ok. I'm not very good at this, nor am I exactly sure of what to say or do. But I'm still here for you, talk or listen. I love you, goodnight, xo."
At 2:36 a.m on Nov. 30, Millard texts Smich and says "just left station, they took your name, but not your number Love you bro." He's also talking about Hagerman about his dog at this time. It appears Hagerman was taking care of him.
Another text from Millard, to Noudga: "They made me wait till 2:30 a.m. at the station before taking my statement. my dad shot himself. my world has never been so upside down." In another text, Millard says: "The last time I spoke to him, I told him the company's financial troubles were his doing and that he was a failure. Usually he tells me not to worry, but this time he said maybe I was right." In another text, he says: "He's always had depression, but he's never been suicidal. I've dealt with suicidal people, it doesn't fit."
On Dec. 3 2012, Millard is texting his mechanic Shane Schlatman and asking him to "discretely change the locks" on the MillardAir hangar. He says "John and his associates" are losing access to the hangar.
Millard is asking Schlatman to be there in the morning as a "quasi guard." He says he "wants to know if anything gets put in someone's trunk."
A text from Milard to Smich, on Dec 3, 2012: "I have to go to the airport tomorrow morning to sign papers and give a speech telling the employees they are out of work."
Later on Dec 3, Schlatman asks Millard in a text if he should "physically stop anyone trying to remove equipment." In another text to a contact named Al Sharif, Millard says: "My father has died. The business is unable to continue. Effective today, MillardAir is closed."
In a text from Dec. 4, Millard says to Smich that he "fired everyone" yesterday. We're now seeing two deleted texts from Millard's phone from Dec 5. An unknown number texts: "can I ask how your dad died?" "Millard responds "suddenly in the night."
The Crown is now finished with Falconer. Millard's lawyer, Ravin Pillay, is starting his cross-examination.
Pillay is asking about the backups for cellphones we've been dealing with here. He's asking if the backups include messages that were deleted and then overwritten. Falconer says it's impossible to recover data that is overwritten.
Falconer says he can't say how many deleted messages have been overwritten from this data.
Pillay is asking Falconer to read some messages from Millard's friend Steve Kenny into the record now.
Some of these texts are from Nov 28 2012. They're not showing them on the screen in court, so it's difficult to keep up. None of them seem to directly relate to this case yes.
In some of these texts, it appears Millard is saying he's at Smich's on Nov. 29, drinking and playing DOTA.
Falconer now reading out some texts from Millard to Noudga on Nov. 30 at 3:54 a.m. "Means I can do something to prevent this in the future. I think I'm going to sleep at my mums tonight. Want to meet up beforehand?"
That's it for Falconer. The next witness is John Barnes. Millard looks at him from the box, but he is not looking over at Millard.
Crown Jill Cameron is conducting his examination in chief.
Barnes says he was first employed back in 1974 by British Airlines. He came to Canada in the spring of 1989 to work with Canadian airlines.
He says he primarily worked in engineering and maintenance.
He currently works with Ornge as the director of maintenance.
Barnes says he knew Wayne Millard. Millard flew with Canada 3000, where he also worked. "We used to rent a hangar from the MIllardAir group."
The original hangar was at Pearson airport in Toronto.
Barnes says he also knew Carl Millard. That's Wayne Millard's father.
Barnes says he eventually went into business with Wayne Millard.
Barnes says Wayne Millard was "picking his brain" about starting up an MRO. That stands for maintenance, repair and overhaul. Essentially a garage for airplanes.
He says he didn't know of Millard being in on that sort of venture before. These talks were happening in February of 2010. In 2011, it became a formal venture and they started trying to get a licence from Transport Canada.
The lease had expired from MillardAir at Pearson, Barnes says, so they were looking at basing things in Kitchener.
Barnes says he joined the payroll of MillardAir in July of 2011.
Barnes says the licence from Transport Canada was essential to the business.
They were looking to get a licence to work on large, commercial aircraft.
Barnes says at that point, he didn't believe anyone else was an employee of MillardAir -- but eventually, other people were hired. Quality assurance managers, technical managers, etc.
As of Dec. of 2012, about 11 production personnel (ie mechanics) and five managers were working for MillardAir, Barnes says.
Barnes says he believes he met Dellen Millard in 2011.
Barnes says Transport Canada came out and inspected the MillardAir hangar.
Barnes says the documentation for a licence was was submitted to Transport Canada in July of 2012.
