Tim Bosma: Jury selection day 1

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Updated:

It was almost three years ago that a young Ancaster father named Tim Bosma took two men out to test drive a pickup truck that he’d advertised for sale online, but he never came home. A massive manhunt ended when police arrested aviation tycoon Dellen Millard, and his friend Mark Smich, and charged them with first degree murder.

Today there is media from all over the region to cover this trial. Court officers brought in extra seats so we everyone could fit in the courtroom for the first day of jury selection. Two weeks have been set aside for this process and because it’s such a high profile case as many as 1 800 potential jurors have been called.

The jurors were called in groups of just under a hundred and the judge, Andrew Goodman, goes over what they might expect, most notably that this trial is expected to last four months.

Dellen Millard and Mark Smich sit in the prisoner box as far apart from each other as possible. Millard was wearing a rumpled grey suit jacket and jeans, he has cut off the long braid he was wearing behind his right ear and some noticed he was wearing what looked like a wedding band. He is very expressive bows deeply at the judge, stares at potential jurors and looks around the courtroom, smiles at people and often stares at his co-accused Smich. Smich looks very clean cut, he wore a thick sweater and he will not meet Millard’s eye, he looks away and seems uncomfortable.

The Bosma family was not there today, Tim’s parents and extended family typically attend. His wife, Sharlene will likely be called as a witness, so she would be barred from court until she testifies. The actual trial is expected to start February 1st.