Laura Babcock Murder trial

Marlena Meneses took the stand at the Laura Babcock murder trial today and testified to seeing her former boyfriend Mark Smich and his friend Dellen Millard using a large animal incinerator in the middle of the night back in the summer of 2012.

23-year-old Marlena Meneses said she and Smich often worked for Millard, fixing and building and cleaning things. In exchange, Millard would buy food and pay phone bills. Meneses said she never knew Laura Babcock, who the crown alleges was killed on July 3rd or 4th.

She recognized what Millard once told her was his new toy. Smich told her it was for incinerating farm animals, which she thought was strange because Millard didn’t have farm animals.

Late one night, she says Millard took her and Smich to his farm, driving up to the back doors of the barn, where court has heard the incinerator was stored. The car was faced away and she was told not to watch what the men were doing.

“Then they came over to me and said, we need a plug.”

So they drove to Millard’s hanger with the incinerator, where they got an extension cord. Meneses was told to stay in the car but at one point she saw the incinerator working in the night, smoking and making a crackling sound.

Meneses doesn’t remember the rap video, although she appears briefly. Earlier, the jury heard that Smich asked her to leave his garage when he played it for friends and then told the friends the song was about a real murder and incineration of a person. Meneses said Millard and Smich often asked her to leave the room.

The crown has finished questioning Marlena Meneses but she still faces cross examination by Dellen Millard, who is representing himself and Mark Smich’s lawyer. She’s not available Monday so court is reconvening on Tuesday morning.