Millard suicide ‘unlikely,’ expert says

TORONTO— After re-enacting the fatal shooting of an aviation executive 20 times using mannequin heads, a police forensic expert concluded it was unlikely the man shot himself in the face, as authorities initially believed, a murder trial heard Thursday.

Wayne Millard, 71, was found dead in his bedroom with a single gunshot wound to the head on Nov. 29, 2012.

Det. Const. Grant Sutherland testified that gunshot residue was found on Millard’s face and the back of his right hand which was tucked under his head, but not on the left hand, which was close to the gun found beside his bed. Sutherland said there should have been gunshot residue on Wayne Millard’s left hand if he used it to pull the trigger.

“One almost has to hold it very strangely,” he said, before taking out the gun found beside Millard’s body — a .32-calibre revolver — and showing court how the man would have held it if he’d shot himself.

Holding the gun upside down with his left thumb on the trigger, Sutherland contorted himself trying to get the right angle and stumbled trying to get into position. The prosecution asked if he thought Wayne Millard fired a gun in that position.

“I don’t believe that he did,” Sutherland said.

Millard’s son, 32-year-old Dellen Millard, has pleaded not guilty in the death of his father.

Sutherland said he was asked to examine photos of the scene and the autopsy report on Aug. 6, 2014, four months after Dellen Millard was charged in his father’s death. He said the forensic testing was conducted on Nov. 25, 2015, at the Toronto Police College, using the gun found in Wayne Millard’s bedroom.

The testing involved 20 mannequin heads resting next to a mannequin arm on top of pillows in an effort to recreate the gunshot residue patterns found in the photographs. Court saw videos of each gunshot in which Sutherland is seen standing over the mannequin and holding the gun in various positions. Sutherland told court he wasn’t able to perfectly recreate the gunshot residue pattern.