Crown presents ‘mountain’ of circumstantial evidence in closing arguments

Two men planned for months to kill a young woman who disappeared five years ago and then tried to cover up their crime by burning the evidence, court heard Wednesday.

The prosecution in the first-degree murder trial of Dellen Millard and Mark Smich gave its closing argument by going over a “mountain” of circumstantial evidence in the presumed death of 23-year-old Laura Babcock. Both pleaded not guilty.

“Her last footprint was in their company. Think about the improbability of coincidence. It’s almost too many to count,” Crown attorney Jill Cameron said. “That is no coincidence, that is murder.”

Millard and Smich allegedly killed Babcock at Millard’s home some time after 8 p.m. on July 3, 2012 — the pair stopped texting each other and everyone else for about four hours, Cameron said.

“They took pictures and didn’t destroy them. They kept her possessions as if they were collecting trophies. Fortunately for us, they didn’t do a very good job of covering up their crime.”

Cameron said Babcock’s footprint, both real and digital, vanished on July 4 when her phone went dark.

After the two killed Babcock, Millard wrapped her body in a tarp, dumped it in his father’s minivan and drove to his hangar for some work and then on to his farm to hide the body, Cameron said. Millard sent Smich a text with a picture of a large, wrapped blue tarp next his dog, Pedo, on the afternoon of July 4. “This was Laura’s body,” Cameron said.

Millard and Smich spoke extensively by text about a homemade incinerator they were never able to get working, she said. After that failure, Millard ordered a commercial incinerator called the Eliminator.

Cameron pointed to the photo of a smiling Smich in front of the Eliminator taken with Millard’s phone July 23, then an image of what experts say are bones inside the machine.

“Given the mountain of evidence you have heard, those aren’t deer bones,” Cameron said. “That is a picture of Laura Babcock after these two got through with her.”

The judge is to begin the charge to the jury on Thursday.