‘Bad blood’ between Millard and Babcock, friend testifies

TORONTO — A friend of Dellen Millard told court that there was “bad blood” between the accused killer and Laura Babcock, who disappeared five years ago and is presumed dead.

Andrew Michalski, Millard’s longtime best friend, said Babcock confided in him a few months before she vanished about a dramatic love triangle. Millard had been sleeping with both Babcock and his girlfriend, Christina Noudga, Michalski told court on Tuesday.

He testified at the first-degree murder trial of Millard and Mark Smich, both accused of killing Babcock in the summer of 2012. “They had bad blood between them,” Michalski told court about the feelings between Millard and Babcock.

He had heard it from both sides, being best friends with Millard and a burgeoning friendship with Babcock.

On April 16, Babcock sent Michalski a text message at 11:20 p.m., forwarding him a text message she received from Millard, court heard.

“You are harmful to me, please don’t try to contact me until you’ve made some huge leaps of self discovery. As I said before, good luck with life,” Millard purportedly wrote to Babcock.

“Am I that bad of a person?” Babcock wrote to Michalski.

“No your super nice and mean well but you just need to think b4 you say something sometimes,” Michalski wrote to Babcock.

“Ya dells def not a fan of me ... Erg these ppl cause so much wanted drama for me. And bring me into it.”

The Crown alleges Millard and Smich killed Babcock and burned her body in an animal incinerator because she had become the odd woman out in a love triangle with Millard and Noudga.

Millard, 32, of Toronto, and Smich, 30, of Oakville, have pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder.

Millard, who is representing himself, told court he didn’t care that much about the women in his life. Texts recovered by police show that he told Noudga he’d “hurt” Babcock and “remove her” from their lives.

On May 4, 2012, Millard texted Michalski: “If you could keep me updated on where Laura goes out to, thatd be of use to me.”

Michalski said he never gave Millard that information and never asked him why.