Image copyright Court exhibit Image caption Dellen Millard at his father's firm MillardAir

A former Canadian millionaire and twice-convicted murderer has been convicted of killing his father, whose death was initially ruled a suicide.

Dellen Millard wept when he heard the judge pronounce him guilty of murdering his father Wayne Millard.

Millard is already serving two life sentences for the murders of Laura Babcock and Tim Bosma.

He inherited the family fortune after his father was found shot in the head.

The 2012 death was originally ruled a suicide, but on Monday an Ontario Superior Court judge found him guilty of shooting his father while he slept.

Millard had told police his father had been depressed and an alcoholic.

"He carried some great sadness with him throughout life that I never knew - he never wanted to share that with me," he said the day after his father died.

But employees at MillardAir, the family's aviation company, said there had been tensions between Millard and his father, according to a CBC investigation.

Six months later, the disappearance of Tim Bosma set off a chain of investigations that would eventually lead to Millard being charged with three murders.

'It was just a truck'

The 32-year-old was trying to sell his vehicle when Millard responded to an ad online. Millard and his friend Mark Smich met Bosma at his family home outside Hamilton, Ontario.

Bosma agreed to go with the pair while they took it for a test drive in May 2013. He was never seen again.

"It was just a truck, a stupid truck," Bosma's wife said, before Smich and Millard's arrest.

Bosma's truck was eventually found by police on a property owned by Millard's mother, and soon he and Smich became prime suspects in his murder. The truck had been stripped, but gunshot residue and traces of his blood were found inside.

Police also began digging around into Millard's past, his father's death, and the disappearance of his former partner Laura Babcock the year before.

The first killing

Three months before his father's death, Babcock had gone missing.

Eventually, police would learn that she had been involved in a love triangle between Millard and his current girlfriend, and that Millard had promised to "remove her from our lives".

Her body was never found, but soon after her disappearance Millard purchased an incinerator. Police have never been able to identify Babcock's and Bosma's remains, but believe both were shot and their bodies burned.

Millard and Smich were found guilty of Bosma's murder in 2016; they were also found guilty of murdering Babcock in 2017.

Father and son

Police then began to re-examine Wayne Millard's apparent suicide following the convictions,

Prosecutors alleged Millard wanted to kill his father to protect his inheritance, which was being used to fund a new aviation business.

Millard said he was at Smich's house the night of his father's death, but phone records reveal he travelled back to his father's house in the early hours of the morning.

A gun purchased by Millard illegally was also found next to his father with Millard's DNA on it.

Smich was not charged in the death of Millard's father.</s>Dellen Millard has been found guilty of first-degree murder for a third time – in this case, for the death of his father, whose November, 2012, shooting was originally deemed a suicide by police.

Open this photo in gallery Dellen Millard, 33, had pleaded not guilty in the death of his 71-year-old father. HO/The Canadian Press

Justice Maureen Forestell, who oversaw Mr. Millard’s month-long trial in June, ruled Monday that the 33-year-old Toronto man had committed the “planned and deliberate” killing of his father six years ago – going so far as to set up a fake alibi to fool police.

Wayne Millard was found in bed with a bullet through his left eye on Nov. 29, 2012. A Smith and Wesson .32 revolver was found on top of a shopping bag next to the bed.

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It was Dellen who had supposedly come across the body after staying at a friend’s house the night before. But instead of calling police, he called his mother – despite the fact that his parents had been divorced for more than a decade. It was only after she arrived at her ex-husband’s house that 911 was called.

The death was ruled a suicide. But when Dellen Millard was charged with first-degree murder in the death of a total stranger a year later, the case was reopened.

Police realized then that his alibi did not check out, and that the gun had been purchased illegally by Mr. Millard from a gun dealer months earlier. His DNA was on the grip.

On Monday, as Justice Forestell read out her decision, Mr. Millard hung his head in the prisoner’s box. Applause broke out in the courtroom.

This is the 33-year-old’s third first-degree murder conviction after three trials in as many years.

In 2016, he – along with his friend Mark Smich – was found guilty of murdering Tim Bosma, a 32-year-old Ancaster dad who went missing on May 6, 2013, after taking the two men on a test drive of the pickup truck he was selling online.

And last fall, he and Mr. Smich were found guilty of murdering Laura Babcock, a 23-year-old Toronto woman who disappeared in July, 2012 – months after Mr. Millard’s girlfriend found out they had been sleeping together.

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Those sentences are being served consecutively, meaning it will be 50 years before the men are eligible for parole. Both have filed appeals.

The Crown is seeking a consecutive sentence in this case as well. A sentencing hearing has been scheduled for Nov. 16.

During this trial, court heard that Mr. Millard had been unhappy about the way his father was running the family business, Millardair Inc. Wayne had recently had a 55,000-square-foot air hangar built at the Region of Waterloo International airport, where he hoped to convert their airplane-storage company into a maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) business.

He saw it as a legacy for his son. But Dellen wanted no part of it – and did not want his father pouring their money into a floundering business.

After Wayne died, court heard that Dellen fired the Millardair staff and started to shut down the business.

Outside the courthouse Monday, Crown attorney Ken Lockhart thanked the investigators and noted the verdict marked the end of a long saga for multiple families.

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“We’re very grateful for the many people who put in a lot of time, effort and heartache into these prosecutions,” he told reporters.

Laura Babcock’s parents, Clayton and Linda, attended the verdict along with Hank and Mary Bosma, Tim’s parents.

Open this photo in gallery An artist's sketch of the court where Dellen Millard, second left, appeared, Sept. 24, 2018, for his trial for the murder of his father, Wayne Millard. Alexandra Newbould/The Canadian Press

“It’s been proven that not only the Bosmas and ourselves lost a loved one, the Millard family must live with the fact that this heinous individual murdered his own father. We feel for Wayne’s relatives, save for one,” Clayton Babcock said to reporters outside the courthouse.

“For all those out there who believe that the sentence of an additional 25 years to Mr. Millard’s 50 years is too harsh, we say you haven’t dealt with this kind of sorrow. We live with a cloud of sadness and loss over us every day,” he said.

“There’ll be not a day in our lives when the loss of Laura, Tim, or Wayne, won’t be felt.”</s>A former Canadian millionaire and twice-convicted murderer has been convicted of killing his father, whose death was initially ruled a suicide.

Dellen Millard wept when he heard the judge pronounce him guilty of first-degree murder in the death of his father Wayne Millard.

Millard is already serving two life sentences for the first-degree murders of Laura Babcock and Tim Bosma.

He inherited the family fortune after his father was found shot in the head.

The 2012 death was originally ruled a suicide, but on Monday an Ontario Superior Court judge found him guilty of shooting his father in the eye while he slept.

Millard was the one who told police his father had been depressed and an alcoholic.

"He carried some great sadness with him throughout life that I never knew - he never wanted to share that with me," he told police the day after his father died.

But employees at MillardAir, the family's aviation company, said there had been tensions between Millard and his father, according to a CBC investigation.

Six months later, the disappearance of Tim Bosma set off a chain of police investigations that would eventually lead to Millard being charged with triple murders.

Bosma had met Millard and Millard's friend Mark Smich to sell them his truck in May 2013. When he did not come home, his wife filed a police report.

Millard and Smich were both found guilty of his murder in 2016; they were also found guilty of murdering Millard's ex Laura Babcock, who had disappeared in July 2012, a few months before the death of Wayne Millard.

Babcock's body was never found, and remains found on a property owned by Millard were too charred to be able to be positively identified.

Prosecutors believe Millard and Smich shot both of them and incinerated their bodies.

Smich was not charged in the death of Millard's father.</s>TORONTO — A Toronto man accused of killing his father, whose death was originally deemed a suicide, has been found guilty of first-degree murder.

Dellen Millard, 33, had pleaded not guilty in the death of 71-year-old Wayne Millard, who was found in his bed with a bullet to the head on Nov. 29, 2012.

Justice Maureen Forestell, who heard the case without a jury, said Dellen Millard carried out a planned and deliberate murder of his father.

"I am satisfied that Dellen Millard killed his father by shooting him in the left eye as he slept,'' she said, drawing applause from some gathered in a Toronto courtroom on Monday. "I can find no theory consistent with innocence.''

Millard was seen crying softly after Forestell delivered her decision.

The Crown alleged Millard killed his father because millions in potential inheritance money was being squandered on a new aviation business for the family company, Millardair. The defence had argued Wayne Millard's death was a suicide.

The murder trial was the third for Dellen Millard, who has been convicted of first-degree murder in the deaths of Toronto woman Laura Babcock and Hamilton man Tim Bosma.

The month-long trial unfolded in June. The Attorney General granted the defence's request for a judge-alone proceeding after agreeing that Millard's notoriety, given the Bosma and Babcock murders, would make it impossible to find fair jurors.

Claimed he had stayed with a friend

The trial heard that Dellen Millard told police he found his father dead in bed around 6 p.m. on Nov. 29, 2012.

He told investigators he last saw his father alive around noon the day before and had stayed the night at his friend Mark Smich's house. Phone records indicate one of Millard's phones moved from Smich's house around 1 a.m. on Nov. 29, 2012, to his father's home where it stayed until shortly after 6 a.m.

"I do not believe the statement of Dellen Millard that he stayed at Mark's,'' Forestell said. "I find it was fabricated to conceal he was involved in the death of his father.''

The trial also heard that Dellen Millard bought a handgun found next to his father's body from a weapons dealer — evidence Forestell accepted.

"I find Dellen Millard purchased the revolver that killed Wayne Millard in July of 2012 and he possessed gun in the months preceding Wayne Millard's death,'' the judge said.

Millard chose not to testify in the trial.

Court did hear, however, his nearly hour-long interview with police the day after his father's death in which he told investigators his father was depressed, an alcoholic and under a tremendous amount of stress because of his efforts to turn around the family's aviation business.

"He carried some great sadness with him throughout life that I never knew — he never wanted to share that with me,'' Dellen Millard told police.

Wayne Millard had inherited the family aviation business, Millardair, from his father, Carl Millard, in 2006. It had been launched as a cargo carrier in 1963 and later flew passengers before going bankrupt in 1990, court heard.

The company then rented out aircraft hangars at Toronto's Pearson airport until 2010, when Wayne Millard moved into the maintenance, repair and overhaul business and built a massive, multi-million dollar hangar at the Region of Waterloo International Airport by 2012.

Fired everyone at company days after father's death

The trial heard that Dellen Millard blamed his father for the company's financial issues.

"The last time I spoke to him, I told him the company's financial troubles were his doing and that he was a failure,'' Millard wrote in a text to his girlfriend that was presented in court. `"Usually he tells me not to worry. But this time he said maybe I was right.''

Days after his father's death, Dellen Millard fired everyone at Millardair and wound the business down, court heard.</s>Dellen Millard is seen in this file photo.

A Toronto judge ruled that Dellen Millard is guilty of first-degree murder in death of his father,

A Toronto man who stood to inherit a multimillion-dollar aviation company was found guilty of first-degree murder in his father’s death Monday, a ruling that marked his third such conviction.

Applause broke out as a judge declared Dellen Millard had carried out a planned and deliberate killing of his father, whose death was initially ruled a suicide.

Wayne Millard, a wealthy 71-year-old businessman, was found dead in his bed with a bullet lodged in his brain on Nov. 29, 2012. His son had pleaded not guilty in the death but the judge hearing the case found otherwise.

“I am satisfied that Dellen Millard killed his father by shooting him in the left eye as he slept,” said Justice Maureen Forestell. “I can find no theory consistent with innocence.”

Millard, 33, cried softly as the decision was read out to a packed courtroom.

Among those who had gathered for the ruling in the judge-alone trial were the parents of Millard’s two other victims, Toronto woman Laura Babcock and Hamilton man Tim Bosma. Babcock’s father said all three families would be forever linked as a result of Millard’s crimes.

“It’s been proven that not only has the Bosmas and ourselves have lost a loved one, the Millard family must live with the fact this heinous individual murdered his own father,” Clayton Babcock said outside court. “There’ll be not a day in our lives when the loss of Laura, Tim or Wayne won’t be felt.”

Crown attorney Ken Lockhart said he was grateful for the outcome of the case.

“I hope that the process has brought (the families) some kind of closure,” he said.

Related: Closing arguments expected in trial for twice convicted Canadian killer

He had killed Babcock, a 24-year-old woman he had been seeing, months earlier in July 2012. Six months after his father’s death, Millard killed Bosma after taking the 32-year-old man’s truck for a test drive.

Millard’s friend, Mark Smich, was also convicted of first-degree murder for the Babcock and Bosma slayings. The pair are serving life in prison with no chance for parole for 50 years for those murders.

Police re-opened the case of Wayne Millard’s death after arresting the younger Millard for Bosma’s killing.

The latest trial unfolded in June without a jury. The Attorney General granted a defence request for a judge-alone proceeding after agreeing that Millard’s notoriety, given the Bosma and Babcock murders, would make it impossible to find fair jurors.

Prosecutors alleged Millard killed his father because millions in potential inheritance money was being squandered on a new aviation business.

Forestell rejected significant parts of the Crown’s case, including the motive for money, saying it played no role in her decision. Instead, she found the case turned on a lie Millard told investigators after his father’s death.

The trial heard Millard told police he found his father dead in bed around 6 p.m. on Nov. 29, 2012. He said he last saw his father alive around noon the day before and had then stayed the night at Smich’s house. But phone records indicated that one of Millard’s phones moved from Smich’s house around 1 a.m. on Nov. 29, 2012, to his father’s home where it stayed until shortly after 6 a.m.

“I do not believe the statement of Dellen Millard that he stayed at Mark’s,” Forestell said. “I find it was fabricated to conceal he was involved in the death of his father.”

Forestell also said Millard created a false alibi after leaving his truck, credit card and his other phone at Smich’s house.

The trial also heard that Dellen Millard, who did not testify in his own defence, bought a handgun found next to his father’s body from a weapons dealer — evidence Forestell accepted. Dellen Millard’s DNA was on the gun.

Dellen Millard told police his father was depressed, an alcoholic and under a tremendous amount of stress because of his efforts to turn around the family’s aviation business, court heard.

“He carried some great sadness with him throughout life that I never knew — he never wanted to share that with me,” Dellen Millard told police in an interview played in court.

Wayne Millard had inherited the family aviation business, Millardair, from his father, Carl Millard, in 2006. It had been launched as a cargo carrier in 1963 and later flew passengers before going bankrupt in 1990, court heard.

The company then rented out aircraft hangars at Toronto’s Pearson airport until 2010, when Wayne Millard moved into the maintenance, repair and overhaul business and built a massive, multi-million dollar hangar at the Region of Waterloo International Airport by 2012.

The trial heard that Dellen Millard blamed his father for the company’s financial issues.

“The last time I spoke to him, I told him the company’s financial troubles were his doing and that he was a failure,” Millard wrote in a text to his girlfriend that was presented in court. “Usually he tells me not to worry. But this time he said maybe I was right.”

Days after his father’s death, Dellen Millard fired everyone at Millardair and wound the business down, court heard.

A sentencing hearing for Millard is scheduled for Nov. 16. The Crown said it will seek an additional 25 years of parole ineligibility for Millard in his father’s death.

Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.</s>Already convicted of murdering two other people, a Toronto man was also found guilty on Monday of murdering his father from whom he inherited a multimillion-dollar aviation business.

Dellen Millard “killed his father by shooting him in the left eye as he slept,” said Ontario Superior Court Justice Maureen Forestell in handing down her guilty verdict.

“I can find no theory consistent with innocence.” Wayne Millard, who was found dead in his bed on November 29, 2012 at the age of 71, ran a company called Millardair that he inherited from his father and which he transformed from a cargo carrier to an aircraft maintenance and servicing business.

Following his father’s death, Dellen Millard told police that the elder Millard was a depressed alcoholic stressed over the financial pressures the family business was facing.

During the trial Dellen Millard’s lawyer argued that Wayne Millard committed suicide, which police originally ruled was the cause of his death.

But police reopened the case after Mr Millard, now 33, and his friend, Mark Smich, were arrested and charged with the 2013 murder of Tim Bosma, a 32-year-old man whose truck Mr Millard and Mr Smich took for a test drive.

Mr Bosma was never seen again, and his truck was found on property owned by Mr Millard’s mother. Police believe Mr Bosma was shot and his body was burned.</s>"I do not believe the statement of Dellen Millard that he stayed at Mark's," Forestell said. "I find it was fabricated to conceal he was involved in the death of his father."

The trial also heard that Dellen Millard bought a handgun found next to his father's body from a weapons dealer — evidence Forestell accepted.

"I find Dellen Millard purchased the revolver that killed Wayne Millard in July of 2012 and he possessed gun in the months preceding Wayne Millard's death," the judge said.

Millard chose not to testify in the trial.

Court did hear, however, his nearly hour-long interview with police the day after his father's death in which he told investigators his father was depressed, an alcoholic and under a tremendous amount of stress because of his efforts to turn around the family's aviation business.

"He carried some great sadness with him throughout life that I never knew — he never wanted to share that with me," Dellen Millard told police.

Wayne Millard had inherited the family aviation business, Millardair, from his father, Carl Millard, in 2006. It had been launched as a cargo carrier in 1963 and later flew passengers before going bankrupt in 1990, court heard.

The company then rented out aircraft hangars at Toronto's Pearson airport until 2010, when Wayne Millard moved into the maintenance, repair and overhaul business and built a massive, multi-million dollar hangar at the Region of Waterloo International Airport by 2012.

The trial heard that Dellen Millard blamed his father for the company's financial issues.

"The last time I spoke to him, I told him the company's financial troubles were his doing and that he was a failure," Millard wrote in a text to his girlfriend that was presented in court. "Usually he tells me not to worry. But this time he said maybe I was right."

Days after his father's death, Dellen Millard fired everyone at Millardair and wound the business down, court heard.</s>An Ontario judge has found convicted killer Dellen Millard guilty of first-degree murder in the 2012 shooting death of his 71-year-old father.

Wayne Millard was found dead in his bed on Nov. 29, 2012 with a bullet hole in his head. His death was initially deemed a suicide.

The Crown alleged Millard shot his father because millions in potential inheritance money was being squandered on a new aviation business for the family company, Millardair.

Millard pleaded not guilty to the fire-degree murder charge. The defence maintained Wayne Millard’s death was a suicide.

Millard is already serving two life sentences for the first-degree murder of Hamilton’s Tim Bosma and Toronto’s Laura Babcock.</s>A decision is expected Monday in the case of a man accused of killing his father, whose death was initially deemed a suicide. Dellen Millard, 33, of Toronto, has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder in the death of 71-year-old Wayne Millard.

The judge-alone trial heard that Wayne Millard was found dead in his bed with a bullet in his brain on Nov. 29, 2012. The Crown alleges the younger Millard killed his father because millions in potential inheritance money was being squandered on a new aviation business for the family company, Millardair. The defence says Wayne Millard’s death was a suicide.</s>TORONTO — A decision is expected Monday in the case of a man accused of killing his father, whose death was initially deemed a suicide.

Dellen Millard, 33, has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder in the death of 71-year-old Wayne Millard.

The judge-alone trial heard that Wayne Millard was found dead in his bed with a bullet in his brain on Nov. 29, 2012.

The Crown alleges the younger Millard killed his father because millions in potential inheritance money was being squandered on a new aviation business for the family company, Millardair.
• Access to inheritance was Dellen Millard’s motive to kill his father, Crown alleges
• Crown dismisses police expert testimony as biased in the last days of Dellen Millard murder trial

The defence says Wayne Millard’s death was a suicide.

Justice Maureen Forestell is expected to rule on the case today.

The murder trial is the third for Dellen Millard, who has been convicted of first-degree murder in the deaths of Toronto woman Laura Babcock and Hamilton man Tim Bosma.
Dellen Millard is convicted of murdering his father Wayne Millard, who owned an aviation company. The death had initially been ruled a suicide. Dellen Millard has already been convicted of two other murders in Canadian court.