A prosecutor is urging a Superior Court judge to impose consecutive life sentences on Dellen Millard and Mark Smich for the murder of a Toronto woman so neither could apply for parole for 50 years.
Millard, 32, and Smich, 30, are already serving automatic life sentences with no parole eligibility for 25 years for the first-degree murder of Tim Bosma of Ancaster, Ont.
Late last year, a Toronto jury convicted the pair of killing Laura Babcock, finding it was planned and deliberate and therefore first-degree murder.
Justice Michael Code must decide whether to impose consecutive or concurrent periods of parole ineligibility, an option the federal government added to the Criminal Code in 2011 for multiple murders.
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Family and friends of both murder victims packed a downtown courtroom Monday for the Babcock sentencing hearing.
“These murders were two carefully planned out separate events over the course of almost a year, and in my submission the law demands that they be sentenced consecutively,” Crown attorney Jill Cameron told Code.
“Justice for Laura demands a separate penalty for her murder.”
Defence lawyers, however, argued that consecutive periods of parole ineligibility would leave them no chance to apply for parole until their 70s, which would be unduly harsh.
“He should have some light at the end of the long tunnel,” Millard’s lawyer, Ravin Pillay, told the judge.
Smich’s lawyer, Tom Dungey, asked Code to take into account that his client was not the “principal character” in the deaths, saying Smich was only an “aider and abettor” and under the spell of the wealthier, better educated Millard.
He implored Code to impose a parole eligibility period that’s five, or fifteen or 20 years.
“You can put any figure you want up to 25,” Dungey said citing another case. Cameron told Code that was a second-degree murder case and so does not apply. She also argued both men are equally culpable, because they were both involved in the planning of Babcock’s July 4, 2012 murder.
Code also heard legal submissions on the character of the two men, who stared straight ahead and sat almost motionless during the daylong proceeding. Both declined to address the court.
Cameron called them remorseless killers who possessed a desire to kills for “some senseless and diabolical adrenalin rush.”
Millard had every opportunity in life that he squandered, she told Code. “He lived a selfish and entitled life,” and is “the lowest moral character.”
Smich, she argued, was a willing participant in both murders, not a “dupe” following Millard around “like a puppy dog.”
The judge had other input.
Millard’s mother, Madeleine Burns Millard, submitted a letter describing her son as a generous, “gentle spirit” who, as an only child, did “not experience the joy of the tribal community.”
“He is a good friend to insects, and actually accompanies spiders outside,” she wrote.
After her divorce from his father, Millard gained weight, and suffered hazing in high school.
Dungey told court Smich is the youngest of three who was raised by a single mother after she separated from his abusive father. He lost his way after dropping out of school at Grade 10, and started selling drugs, Dungey said.
But the worst thing that happened was the day he met Millard, the lawyer added.
Before the legal arguments began, Cameron read into the record a victim impact statement on behalf of the victim’s father, mother and brother.
“We always taught our children not to use the word hate. It is too horrible and destructive, but you men have made us hate,” Cameron said reading the statement. “We’ve learned to hate.”
Code reserved his decision until Feb. 26.
