Millard guilty of murder

A Toronto man who stood to inherit a multimillion-dollar aviation company was found guilty of first-degree murder in his father’s death Monday, a ruling that marked his third such conviction.

Applause broke out as a judge declared Dellen Millard had carried out a planned and deliberate killing of his father, whose death was initially ruled a suicide.

Wayne Millard, a wealthy 71year-old businessman, was found dead in his bed with a bullet lodged in his brain on Nov. 29, 2012. His son had pleaded not guilty in the death but the judge hearing the case found otherwise.

“I am satisfied that Dellen Millard killed his father by shooting him in the left eye as he slept,” said Justice Maureen Forestell. “I can find no theory consistent with innocence.”

Millard, 33, cried softly as the decision was read out to a packed courtroom.

Among those who had gathered for the ruling in the judge-alone trial were the parents of Millard’s two other victims, Toronto woman Laura Babcock and Hamilton man Tim Bosma. Babcock’s father said all three families would be forever linked as a result of Millard’s crimes.

“It’s been proven that not only has the Bosmas and ourselves have lost a loved one, the Millard family must live with the fact this heinous individual murdered his own father,” Clayton Babcock said outside court. “There’ll be not a day in our lives when the loss of Laura, Tim or Wayne won’t be felt.”

Crown attorney Ken Lockhart said he was grateful for the outcome of the case.

“I hope that the process has brought (the families) some kind of closure,” he said.

Wayne Millard’s death was Dellen Millard’s second murder.

He had killed Babcock, a 24year-old woman he had been seeing, months earlier in July 2012. Six months after his father’s death, Millard killed Bosma after taking the 32year-old man’s truck for a test drive.