Tim Bosma trial: Girlfriend felt like she was being 'played' by Dellen Millard
After months of receiving secret letters sent to her from jail, Dellen Millard's girlfriend started to feel she was being played by her incarcerated lover, court heard Monday at the trial of two men accused of killing Hamilton man Tim Bosma.
Noudga, the Toronto woman who was Millard's girlfriend when he and Mark Smich were charged with first-degree murder in 2013, returned to the witness box Monday to answer questions about the dozens of letters Millard sent her from jail. She has been charged with being an accessory after the fact in the Bosma case.
Smich, 28, of Oakville, Ont., and Millard, 30, of Toronto, have pleaded not guilty.
As time went on, Noudga started to feel like she might be getting played by her boyfriend to suit his ends. Millard wasn't overly emotional before his arrest, she said, but after he was incarcerated, that changed.
"These expressions of love are interspersed with you being asked to reach out and speak with Crown witnesses, right?" assistant Crown Attorney Tony Leitch asked. "Yes," Noudga said.
It is unclear if Noudga and Millard are still romantically linked.
The also court heard about a phone call between Millard, his mother and Noudga that was mentioned in a letter dated Nov. 17, 2013. "It was wonderful to think you could hear me on the phone. I could almost feel your presence. Even now, days later, it puts the hint of a smile on my face," Millard wrote.
"But it was also reckless of my Mum to do that ... if either you, or her, are under surveillance, what are you gonna say when the prosecution pulls out a snapshot of you in the phone booth, with phone records, and jail records, to say I was on the other end of the line?"
Millard sings Oasis's Wonderwall
Noudga testified that she didn't actually speak to Millard that day, and that Millard's mother handed her the receiver at a pay phone.
"Madeleine called Dellen ... she handed me the receiver and he sang Wonderwall, by Oasis," Noudga said.
"So he has the opportunity to speak to you in person, and all he does is sing Wonderwall?" Leitch said. "Yes," Noudga responded. She testified she couldn't recall what Millard's mother said to her son before that happened.
In his letters, which Millard told Noudga to destroy, he also plots strategy.
"Because there is so much disclosure still to come, it's not certain what defence I will use. It is clear though, that police are going to use my phone record in an attempt to pinpoint my location at a given time," he wrote.
"This is based on the assumption that I am carrying the phone. I need to attack this assumption ... I want supporting evidence, and testimony evidence, that it was usual/normal for me to lend my phone to Mark."
Creating a script
Millard also penned multiple letters where he concocted a story for Noudga to tell in the witness box, in which Smich already knew the Bosmas, and Michalski would be instructed to say that Millard wasn't there the night Bosma was shot.
All of those letters were marked at the end with "destroy these letters." Noudga didn't destroy the letters, but also didn't take them to police.
"This is clearly asking you to speak with Andrew Michalski to tell an absolute lie about what happened," Leitch said. "Correct," Noudga responded.
"You're saying that after you read this you maintained you believed in his innocence?" Leitch then asked. "I didn't know what I believed anymore ... but I was in denial for a very long time," Noudga responded.
Peppered throughout the letters, Millard wrote to Noudga about many other things — like his exercise habits, and how Noudga looked on Halloween dressed as Harley Quinn from the Batman animated series from photos she had sent him.
Millard also made requests for several songs lyrics to be sent to him, including Butterfly by Crazy Town and The Lion Sleeps Tonight, popularized by the Tokens.
Read Millard's letters:
CBC reporter Adam Carter is in the courtroom each day reporting live on the trial. You can view a recap of his live blog here:
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