Convicted killer in two cases to stand trial in death of father

Serving two life sentences for separate murders, Millard heads to court with judge-only trial

Wayne Millard was found dead in his bed in November 2012 — a bullet lodged in his brain.

The death of the 71-year-old wealthy businessman was initially ruled a suicide. Two years later, police charged his son, Dellen Millard, with first-degree murder.

The 32-year-old, who is serving two consecutive life sentences for two separate murders, has pleaded not guilty to the charge.

As Dellen Millard’s murder trial gets underway Thursday, family members say they’re struggling to make sense of the ordeal.

“I’m sick over all this,” said Peter Roberts, who remembered his cousin Wayne Millard as a generous, caring man.

Roberts recalled asking the elder Millard for help when his ailing mother wanted to spend her final days in her own home. His cousin paid nearly $100,000 for round-the-clock care for about a year, Roberts said.

“It was such a delight to talk to him,” he said. “All of a sudden I have a guy to go to talk to, like a mentor. Then he’s gone.”

Wayne Millard was the owner of Millardair, an aviation company based near Waterloo, Ont., that he inherited from his father.

According to court documents and pretrial motions, it was Dellen Millard who found his father’s body in the home the two shared in Toronto’s west end on Nov. 29, 2012. He then called his mother, Madeleine Burns and told her Wayne Millard was dead, court documents show.

Burns went to the house and then called 911, court documents show.

In 2016, Dellen Millard and his friend, Mark Smich, were found guilty of firstdegree murder in Tim Bosma’s death and received life sentences. The jury heard that the pair killed Bosma and burned his body in an animal incinerator.

Millard and Smich were also later convicted — and sentenced to life — in the murder of Laura Babcock, a young Toronto woman who vanished in the summer of 2012.

Millard’s third murder trial will be in front of a judge alone. Ontario’s attorney general agreed the man’s notoriety would make it difficult to find fair jurors, thus granting the rare request to hold a first-degree murder trial without a jury.