Millard trial opens with testimony from girlfriend

TORONTO — An aviation executive whose death was initially ruled a suicide had been making plans to celebrate his girlfriend’s birthday before he was found with a bullet lodged in his brain, a Toronto court heard Thursday.

Janet Campbell said she was shocked when Wayne Millard’s son told her his father appeared to have killed himself days before her birthday.

Dellen Millard has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder in his father’s death. It’s the third time the 32-year-old is standing trial for first-degree murder — he’s currently serving two consecutive life sentences for separate convictions.

Campbell said Wayne Millard, 71, was in love with her and the two would talk for hours on the phone, including the night before he was found dead. They made plans to talk the next day, but when Campbell couldn’t reach him, she emailed his son, court heard.

“He said ‘my father was dead and it would appear to be by his own hand,’” Campbell told the judge-alone trial. “I was stunned, totally and absolutely stunned.”

Court documents have shown Dellen Millard was the one who found his father’s body on Nov. 29, 2012, in the home the two shared in Toronto. The younger Millard called his mother, who came to the home and then called 911, documents show.

Campbell said she had reconnected with Wayne Millard, her cousin through adoption, in early 2012. The two had dated when they were teenagers, she said, but lost touch in the intervening 50 years. He reached out to her and they began a friendship that became romantic by November 2012.

The pair often discussed Millard’s business — Millardair — which was in the midst of being revamped to become an aircraft maintenance and repair operation at a brand new, multimillion-dollar hangar at the Region of Waterloo International Airport.

“Things were coming together at that point” for Millardair, Campbell said. The company had just secured a valuable licence from Transport Canada on Nov. 1 to operate, court documents show.

Campbell said Millard would be stressed at times because of the business, but it didn’t seem unmanageable.

“I wouldn’t say a great deal of stress,” she said under repeated questioning from Dellen Millard’s lawyer, Ravin Pillay.

The lawyer portrayed the elder Millard as a recluse and an alcoholic, which Campbell agreed with, though she said he never drank when the two of them were together.

But she disagreed when Pillay said Wayne Millard suffered from depression.

“I don’t want to say he suffered from depression, he was depressed like everyone else,” she said.

“I don’t think he was clinically depressed.”