Dellen Millard to be sentenced for father’s murder

Serial killer Dellen Millard will find out Tuesday if he’ll officially spend the rest of his life in jail.

Justice Maureen Forestell is expected to announce Millard’s sentence in the shooting death of his father, Wayne, in Superior Court in Toronto. 

The proceedings mark the end of Millard’s third high-profile trial in recent years. The 33-year-old Toronto man made international headlines for a series of brutal murders that shocked southern Ontario — capped off with his most recent trial for the death of his father, who he shot in the eye while he slept.

Now Millard, who is already serving time for the murders of Hamilton man Tim Bosma and Toronto woman Laura Babcock, may be facing another life sentence.

“There is no explanation for his crimes other than pure entitlement, depravity and evil,” assistant Crown attorney Jill Cameron said during sentencing submissions last month.

Millard’s third conviction carries an automatic sentence of 25 years without a chance of parole. Forestell will rule on whether or not Millard will serve that sentence consecutively, or concurrent to his previous sentences.

The Crown has asked for a consecutive sentence, which would tack on another 25 years to Millard’s imprisonment. That would effectively guarantee he spends the rest of his life behind bars, as he wouldn’t be eligible for parole until 2088, when he would be 102. 

Millard’s lawyer, Ravin Pillay, said during sentencing submissions that such a sentence would be “extraordinarily harsh and excessive.”

“He will die before then,” Pillay said.

Death originally ruled a suicide

A bullet was found lodged in the brain of 71-year-old Wayne Millard. (Court exhibit)

Millard was found guilty of killing his father at a judge-alone trial that concluded in Toronto back in September. In her decision, Forestell said Millard carried out a “planned and deliberate killing” of his father.

“I am satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt that Dellen Millard killed his father by shooting him in the left eye as he slept,” the judge said in her decision.

Wayne Millard’s death was originally ruled a suicide. His body was found at his home at 5 Maple Gate Crt. in the Toronto suburb of Etobicoke on Nov. 29, 2012. At the time, Dellen Millard was living at his father’s home.

Millard wasn’t charged in his father’s death until 2014, after police started investigating the slayings of Bosma, a husband and father from the Ancaster area of Hamilton, and Babcock, a Toronto woman who had once been involved with Millard.

Crown, police react to Millard being found guilty WATCH00:00 08:15Dellen Millard has been found guilty of killing his father, Wayne Millard. 8:15

Once the Wayne Millard case was reopened, investigators discovered that his son’s DNA was on the gun used to shoot his father, and his cellphone had pinged off nearby cell towers around the time the older man died.

Whether Wayne Millard killed himself emerged as the trial’s key question as the evidence unfolded.

The Crown argued that Millard shot his father to escape a legacy and business being built for him that he didn’t want, as his father was using family funds to expand his aviation business.

Millard’s defence team discounted the Crown’s motive in its closing submissions, and argued Wayne Millard was a reclusive alcoholic who killed himself.