Laura Babcock murder trial

Dellen Millard and Mark Smich could be found guilty of first or second degree murder, or manslaughter, or one or both could be found not guilty at all. That’s what the jury at the Laura Babcock trial was told today, as the judge continued his charge.

First the jury has to decide beyond a reasonable doubt if Laura Babcock is dead. The crown says she is: none of her friends or family have heard from her in more than five years, all her communication, banking and healthcare stopped on July 3, 2012.

Dellen Millard’s position is that Babcock may still be alive, because she was leading a risky lifestyle as an escort and talked about leaving town. He says she also could have died some other way.

The judge told the jury to consider timing and location. Millard was with Babcock July 3, after telling his girlfriend he would hurt Laura for interfering in their relationship. He had just purchased a large animal incinerator and a gun. Mark Smich was at Millard’s house that night, although Millard told him not to be outside when he got home with Babcock.

The next morning, Laura Babcock’s iPad was backed up on Millard’s computer for the first time and at some point renamed Mark’s iPad. The night the crown alleges Laura Babcock’s remains were burned, Mark Smich appears in a photo holding the incinerator ash-scraper. Also that night he composes a rap song. He will later tell his friends is a true murder story. Smich’s defence is that the song is just a song and that his friends were not credible witnesses. He says Millard gave him the iPad and Laura Babcock’s red suitcase, which were found in his mother’s home.

If the jury believes that Laura Babcock is dead, they go on to decide if Smich and Millard are responsible and whether there was planning and deliberation to indicate first degree murder. The crown believes Millard is the principal in the murder and Smich the aider and abettor but both accused can be found equally guilty of first degree murder.