Crown closes its case in Tim Bosma trial: Here's what comes next
After more than three months of testimony and over 90 witnesses, the Crown has closed its case at the trial of the two men accused of killing Hamilton man Tim Bosma.
The case is moving closer to a conclusion in the Ontario Superior Court, where evidence has been mounted against Dellen Millard, 30, of Toronto, and Mark Smich, 28, of Oakville, Ont.
Both have pleaded not guilty to charges of first-degree murder.
On Monday, Justice Andrew Goodman asked Millard and Smich's legal teams if they would be calling witnesses.
Millard's name is first on the indictment, so the question was first put to his lawyer Ravin Pillay.
Pillay said no, meaning Millard will not testify. An accused person cannot be compelled to testify.
The majority of evidence at the trial so far has centred on Millard. The aviation company heir even wrote about addressing the jury in jailhouse letters he had smuggled out to his then girlfriend, Christina Noudga.
"My heart's racing. [It's] probably a combination of a quick workout, and [rehearsing] an [opening] address to a jury," he wrote.
As Smich's name is second on the indictment, Goodman asked his legal team if they would be calling witnesses after Millard. As the two legal teams are not presenting a united front (through what is called antagonistic defence), this gave Smich a possible tactical advantage.
Smich's lawyer Thomas Dungey said that he will call witnesses, but it's not yet clear if Smich will be one of them.
Goodman excused the jury until Wednesday, when Dungey will begin calling his own witnesses. In all likelihood, he will not call nearly as much evidence as the Crown did. He will also give an opening address, as the Crown did at the beginning of the trial.
The Crown and Millard's lawyers will also have the option to cross-examine Dungey's witnesses.
After Dungey finishes with his defence, the Crown can call a rebuttal if the defence has raised some new matter or evidence that the Crown had no opportunity to deal with earlier in the trial.
After that, the Crown and the defence will give closing submissions to the jury. All of the lawyers will meet with Goodman for a two-part "pre-charge conference," where his final charge to the jury is discussed.
Finally, Goodman will deliver his charge to the jury regarding the evidence they will consider. It's likely he will instruct the jury about the admissibility of certain evidence and about the weight they should give to different things they have heard over the last few months.
After a trial of this length, the charge to the jury is likely to take at least a day.
After that process, the jury will be asked to deliberate on a verdict.
The trial is expected to take at least another two weeks.
Bosma, 32, lived in the suburban Ancaster area of Hamilton, and vanished on May 6, 2013, after taking two men on a test drive in a pickup truck he was trying to sell. Investigators later found charred human remains, believed to be Bosma, in a livestock incinerator on Millard's farm in Ayr, Ont.
adam.carter@cbc.ca
